Operation 'Frivals'
by KiroDrakSlayer
Summary: "What?" "Operation Frivals?" "Yeah. They're great friends but now they'll be rivals, you know? They're friends and rivals. Frivals." "Okay, seriously, you really need to spend less time with Stiles." Erica scoffed. Only Derek's life could be like this. Rated T for language.


Hey guys! Hello to everyone!

My god, it's been eons since I last did anything remotely productive in this site, hasn't it? Or at the very least show some fucking signs of life, right? Anyway I wanted to first say hello to everyone out there and leave this little piece of work that's been bubbling in my head for a while. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: blah blah blah Teen Wolf not mine blah blah blah

Enjoy :)

* * *

Wizards are a bitch.

They really are.

Specially if they're after a certain teenager who can't keep his fucking trap shut... not even if his fucking life depends on it.

And that is what Derek regrets the most, because no matter how much he tries to always keep Stiles at bay from danger it can just never be. The skinny boy just seems to like being in danger's way, and now that he thinks about it shouldn't really be that surprising considering that Stiles is the only human in the world who probably puts himself in danger even when doing something as trivial as brushing your teeth.

Flailing limbs didn't combine with anything at all.

It was right after the crazy shit storm that a certain scaly someone caused that the pack, together with the anomaly-attracting-town known as Beacon Hills, was at a relative peace for a while.

A peace that almost let the teenagers a little bit baffled after a whole month of nothing but boring normal things to do.

You couldn't really blame them after almost three months of a non stop rain of nothing but crazy murderous rabid uncles, vengeful stalking teenagers and psychotic evil grandparents.

So yeah, it was too good to last.

Which is now the reason why Derek runs through the woods, dogging every little critter that that fucking wizard keeps summoning in order to detain him from chasing after the spastic teen who currently flails his way back to the Hale Manor, not that he's doing a very good job getting there because Derek is pretty sure Stiles did a wrong turn and is now heading for the cliff from where you can overlook the entire town.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

At some point during the sprint through the woods Derek briefly started wondering how the others were handling those creepy looking goblins that the wizard summoned back in town.

Just a few hours back in time the pack was actually having a stakeout in some carnival, waiting for the wizard (who had been running around for a few days murdering several people, just to increase the town's murdering cuota) to attack yet again. It was thanks to the research team (Stiles, Danny, Lydia and Allison) that they were able to figure out that the carnival was going to be the next place where the wizard would strike (seems like the guy was following some kind of pattern for his killing spree); however, it was after an hour of patrolling the area (Derek will _never_ say 'strolling' because he has his pride and Stiles would never fucking let it go for the rest of his life) that a certain scrawny boy let out a tired whine, complaining how boring this was getting and saying how they should take advantage of the place. So just when the alpha was about to let out an annoyed sigh and remark that they were there for serious business it was then that the rest of the pack, as if on cue, quickly scattered around the place to get engrossed on whatever childish game caught their attention.

Derek had to quickly pinch the bridge of his nose in order to stop a new migraine coming his way.

How the heck was this his pack?

The new _Hale _pack nonetheless.

When he let out another sigh he was greeted with Stiles's beaming face (which the brooding wolf absolutely did NOT think it was cute or anything of the sort by the way) and could only roll his eyes almost knowing exactly what the teen was thinking. So without a word between the two Derek and Stiles headed for the nearest junk-selling stall they could find… or more like Stiles went for the nearest junk food he could find and Derek followed behind just to make sure the boy didn't end up choking on hot dogs, popcorn and candy being shoved into the kid's mouth all at once.

It was after two extra large hot dogs, three servings of nachos and enough cotton candy to give Derek a diabetic attack that the spastic teen dragged him to found themselves lining up to ride the roller coaster, and with every step that the pair got close to getting on the game the more the slim teen flailed with emotion while the broody alpha internally chastised himself for not being able to properly stop his lips from tugging up at the other's quips. Derek couldn't just understand how Stiles was able to pull the nerve to ride such thing as a _roller coaster_ with all the crap the kid had just put in his stomach.

He was not surprised when Stiles ran to throw out his guts in the nearest restroom once they were off.

Unfortunately their fun didn't last long because it was while waiting for the boy that the werewolf started to get a weird whiff, the scent of mistletoe. His brows suddenly scrunched together in a sole dark line when his nose caught the direction from which the scent came.

The _fucking_ restrooms.

His legs were already making him sprint towards there.

Turns out that that that son of a bitch wizard was actually waiting for Stiles to be alone, the asshole was full intended the entire time on getting the slim teen alone (of-fucking-course). So it was after a most concerning scream (which Stiles will for ever deny being girly at all) echoing throughout all the carnival that the people saw a scrawny boy running out of the restrooms with weird looking creatures (probably summoned by the wizard) chasing after him, prompting the rest of the population to run around in panic while they all gave chase to a flailing teen heading towards the forest.

Derek had to praise Stiles' quick mind for taking all of the critters away from innocent people, but now it was the teen who was in greater danger since the woods were a place not only to ambush or outrun but also to get cornered as well.

The dark wolf told himself time after time that the heavy feeling in his chest was the annoyance of having to rescue Stiles, nothing more, it was definitely not concern for the kid, not at all… right? So after the rest of the pack started slashing and shooting through the critters and nodded at the alpha as a sign that they would take control of the situation here Derek sprinted after the wizard and Stiles without sparing a second though to the other teens.

Which is the reason why Derek was now running through the forest.

His eyes flashing red, trying not miss the general direction of the chase.

His claws slashing through some more critters… in a very vicious way at that.

And his nostrils almost fuming with rage.

Yeah, he was really pissed now.

Once Derek was able to catch up with both of them he was stalled by more critters, practically ambushed and held at bay as he helplessly watched how the wizard was approaching Stiles who was cornered against the edge of the cliff. The teen on the other hand was keeping a stare contest with the wizard- actually it was more the teen glaring defiantly while the other just looked at the boy with unspoken superiority, both of them with eyes hardly blinking as the magical prick slowly walked towards the slim boy.

Derek knew it was just a matter of seconds before the guy got whatever it was he wanted and he also knew that, judging by how Stiles' eyes were alternating between the wizard and his surroundings he was probably still trying to figure out a way out of his current situation, those seconds weren't going to be enough for them to get out of this unscathed.

With every step the guy took the seconds seem to go even slower, as if time was taking pleasure in mentally torture him by reminding him that there was not enough time to actually do something to save Stiles. Jesus Christ, why does time and space have to be such bitches at times like these? Ragged by the impotence of the moment Derek decided to struggle some more which caused the critters to jump on him all at the same time, effectively pinning him down.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Now all Derek could was to helplessly struggle to free himself while watching the magical douche approach Stiles undeterred.

His frantic shouting didn't help either. Derek screaming at the top of his lungs to Stiles to fucking run away instead of just stare at the wizard was probably not the best way to solve this situation.

But just as Derek thought it all lost, just as the magical bastard grinned with victory, and just as Stiles had a desperate look on his eyes a howl resonated. One howl which Derek couldn't recognize at all but gave him a vague sense of familiarity.

As the howl resonated through the place, and in the midst of the confusion, a large _white_ werewolf jumped out of the bushes, the large body of white fur smashing against the wizard and sending both bodies to the bottom of the dark cliff.

After one more howl and a screeching yell the forest was once again silent.

It was in the middle of this silence that the critters, probably fearing for their lives as their master was now gone, fled away in terror back into the darkness of the forest. They didn't leave any kind of trace behind them.

Breaking out of his stupor Derek hurried to the teen's side who was still dumbfoundedly looking at the pitch-black bottom of the cliff, his eyes searching for any trace of the two bodies that just recently disappeared under the dark veil. However, whatever karma was acting now it wouldn't let them have it that easy. Just as Derek was a few steps away from Stiles the edge of the cliff suddenly gave in causing the young man to slide off the edge, happening so fast that not even Derek's quick reflexes were enough to catch the boy by the collar of his red flannel on time. So the wolf could only register, in slow motion, how the kid fell into darkness right before his eyes. He was so focused on his inner turmoil that he didn't notice the white blur quickly jumping up the cliff and catching the teen in the air to safely land a few feet away from where the alpha was standing at the edge of the cliff, all in the blink of an eye.

As the white wolf gently put down the boy Derek's first reaction was to approach the teen, his eyes searching up and down for any sign of injuries, all the while letting out a low growl form from the bottom of his throat. A warn for the white wolf to back off from a member of his pack.

Yeah, that's Derek's story and he's sticking to it.

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Take easy Derek. If he wanted me to get hurt he would've left me fall down that cliff."

Despite logic Derek was still being his usual self, placing himself in front of Stiles to block the boy from the other wolf's view. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" He asked in a warning tone, half wolfed out by the way.

Both Derek and Stiles were thrown off when the white wolf chuckled. "Just like you to forget old friends." He managed to say in his beast form.

"Excuse me?" He asked all confused, his face completely human again.

But before the black wolf could get any answers the other wolf sprinted away.

When Derek broke out of his stupor he quickly chased after him, leaving behind and angry Stiles who ran (or at least tried to) behind him and started shouting how he was an asshole for taking off without him.

* * *

They eventually made it back to the Hale manor.

The wolf arrived carrying one mouthy teenager in his back, mostly because he would rather prefer to endure the boy's weight over his incessant yapping. As Derek shook off the boy, basically by dumping him on the soft dirt, they were both greeted by another man coming out of the old burnt house. The black wolf let out a low growl, half of it was a warning and the other was of anger for him having the audacity to step into his old house like he had any right, when the man stepped down from the front porch and into the dim light of the crescent moon.

The man was tall, same height as Derek if not a little bit more, and was also as well built as him, if not more… damn it. He was currently dressed in a pair of tight faded jeans, probably from over washing them, and he was using also a hoodied white leather jacket with black sleeves. His skin was white, almost kind of pale, and his eyes were gray, so gray that it was like they were engulfed in some kind of mist. The guy's hair was strikingly white as well. And to top it all off he was sporting the most annoying shit-eating grin he had ever remembering seeing since…

Derek gasped. "Dante?!" He said, surprised that he hadn't recognize the man before him.

The man widened his grin. "Took you long enough, right Der-bear?"

And just like that both wolfs were hugging and laughing.

Stiles on the other hand felt kind of lost… and he was gaping… too much… actually, he looked like he was kind of making an impression of a fish.

And could you blame him?

Derek Hale. _The_ Derek Hale was actually _joking_ and, to top it all off, he was _openly_ and _willingly_ _smiling_.

_Holy crap._

"Yes, Stiles." The gruff voice brought him back to reality. Derek was now scowling at him. 'Aaaand he's back.' "Yes, I can smile and, yes, I can joke."

The teen winced while other wolf ('Dante, his name is Dante Stiles') was laughing really hard. Yeah, Stiles should really do something about his "inner talking" which seems to to be not so inner, specially with Derek around.

When he heard Dante laughing even harder and Derek glarin even harder he knew it was time to shut up.

Stupid broken filter.

* * *

They were all hanging in the loft.

Derek was happy to have his old friend Dante back in town.

It had been way too long since they last saw each other... since they were thirteen, to be more precise.

Derek and Dante were, to make a long story short, pretty much the wolfy version of Scott and Stiles in their childhood. Only instead of meeting in the park's sandbox and doing whatever adventure kids did to become friends, both young pups met in the middle of the preserve while escaping from hunters. So yeah, it was a kind of more intensive way of bonding. Ever since that day Dante and Derek went together to any place they feel like terrorizing.

All that came to an end when Dante's family moved out of town, but even then both pups promised to stay in touch. They were both thirteen in that moment and had too many things going in their young minds… too many naive things.

The next three years was full of emails, pictures, videos, and sometimes long conversations over skype… or more like ye'olde Messenger ('Stiles, I heard that. We're _not_ that old'). The boys would even skip their sleep hours several times just to get to say whatever was that they wanted to say to each other, that was until they were both chastised by their respective mothers in more than one occasion.

However, everything came to a stop right after the arson.

Although Derek did inform his best friend about the tragedy and, obviously, his friend would always send him something (a short message, a picture, or whatever) to assure that he was there for him if only in spirit, that did not stop the situation from making them grow apart as each one started to embark on a different path. With Dante who was always travelling with his family and Derek moving into New York and Laura helping him to cope with the situation both young wolves reduced their contact to the occasional email, picture or video. The conversations on the internet went from being daily to being, at best, once every two months. Finally, one year before Derek had to get back to Beacon Hills chasing after his sister, Dante and Derek no longer held any kind of contact.

And they really did felt like something had disappeared.

But now they were together once more... which also meant that they had a lot of catch up to do.

As both of the older wolves kept talking about some their past years together the pack listened with some interest, eager to learn whatever they could about their alpha's past life mostly. About a time when he smiled more, when he laughed more, when he was like he was supposed to be if the fire had never happened… if Kate had never happened.

Incidentally, those last thoughts had been what crossed Stiles' mind.

And no, thankfully he didn't think aloud that time.

Derek on the other hand was really just enjoying these moments. To get to spend time with his best friend from his old days, days when he was his old self.

A Derek of older days that, right now, his pack was getting glimpses of.

So he _did_ get to enjoy the moment, and he first wanted to know what his old friend had been doing.

Apparently Dante spent a long time traveling around the country due to his father's job, so it was actually a miracle that he was able to stay for so long when his family moved to stay in Beacon Hills and be able to meet and make good friends with Derek. Which now that he knew, Derek was immensely grateful about it. After moving away from Beacon Hills Dante and his family visited many of the bigs towns of the country: first they went to New York (ironically enough), then they were in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, L.A., Dallas, and many other cities.

That was all in the course of three years.

Right after those three years Dante and his family moved to Europe and barely got to stay in one place for more than a couple of months, which explained why Dante couldn't contact Derek as much as the white wolf had wanted especially when he received that email telling him about the fire. Dante apologized to Derek many times during that part of the story, and the black wolf merely smiled in an understanding fashion.

However during the last year, when both older wolves no longer had any contact, Dante had suffered his fair share of loss just as Derek. For starters his parents got divorced and, while his mother and little brother returned to the States, Dante opted to keep travelling around with his father. All that year the white wolf and his dad traveled all around Asia and Australia, but it was almost at the end of their travel that tragedy struck again when Dante's father suddenly fell ill to a high fever in Sidney. Despite medical attention and even trying to seek help from the supernatural world Dante couldn't save him. Oddly enough, his father had met his end in the land where he was born.

The white wolf snorted with a mix of sadness and fun when he told the pack that he considered it to be a bit ironic, but since his father told him that he was glad to have lived his life despite everything else then Dante couldn't have been more happy to bid him farewell.

He felt happy to see his father satisfied.

It was after the funeral that he kept traveling around a little bit more, for like over two months,before returning to the country. Taking a detour to Beacon Hills before going to visit his mother and brother in Seattle.

"And that's my story." He finished with a small smile.

Derek thought how ironic life had been with both of them, because since they became friends they went through a lot of things together and experienced a lot of things together and felt and thought almost the same way. Who knew that they would also suffer in a similar way? The black wolf also felt kind of grateful when everybody in the room skipped a beat in their hearts, as if each and every one could relate to his friend's pain.

In a way they all did.

Feeling his own pain trying to resurface Derek felt the urgent need to comfort his old friend but as he turned to see the other older wolf he immediately froze on the spot. Stiles was comforting Dante by putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling at him.

That smile.

It was a smile Derek had never seen before in the scrawny teen: comforting, understanding, soft, warm, full of something he couldn't name (or probably didn't want to). It made him wonder how many times had the boy done that smile. He also knew why Stiles found it so easy to relate.

His mother.

He was grateful, really grateful to Stiles for also helping to comfort his old friend and he was happy to have Dante here with him once again. And it was precisely this mix of emotions that had hidden away the little stung that the black wolf had felt in his chest for a fraction of a second the moment he saw the scene before him.

Right now his friend was all that mattered.

Derek also completely missed Lydia's calculating gaze.

* * *

It's been a week, a whole week since Dante sprung out of the bushes in the woods to tackle that fucking wizard, a whole week in which Derek was really happy (Most of the pack kept saying how creepy it was for them to see him like this) doing all sorts of things with his long time buddy.

They went to their usual spots around town, some of the locals had recognized Dante and were very happy to welcome him. Like the old coffee shop owner in downtown named Lunar Cup. Both wolves loved the way the old lady who owned the place made all kind of blends with different grains of coffee, it was just delicious and incredibly addictive. They also went to the bowling alley, the new shopping mall and several other locations (on a little side note, though Derek loved to drive around in his black Camaro they sometimes used Dante's car… a white 458 italia Ferrari which had the teens really amazed. Apparently an acquaintance of Dante was).

They also spent a lot of time in the preserve

Although most of the time the entire pack got together for practice sessions, in which basically the teens got their asses handed to them by both Derek and Dante while the humans did other stuff, they enjoyed their time together whenever it was only the two of them. When there weren't kicking hormonal butts the older wolves used to run through the woods and end up either in the cliff that overlooked the preserve and the town or they would end near the blue crystal pond at the very center of the forest. Sometimes sparring, sometimes playing around, and a few other times just enjoying the quiet peace of the woods.

"Every time I came across a scenery like this I started to remember all those summer camps we did." Dante said suddenly.

"We did a few, you know? Laura and me." Derek provides giving him a side glance. "When we moved to New York we used to do some camping in central park, or sometimes we would just do a picnic, or at the very least go every Sunday to just lay in the grass by the ponds."

After a few beats of silence Dante spoke again. "Europe's green field made me though of California too much."

Derek couldn't help but smile at that.

He had missed this, being once again with with his best-friend-practically-brother, probably the last link he had to those times of old, when he was a different Derek.

He felt different, in a way he hadn't felt in a long time.

He was once again happy.

"Hey guys!" And suddenly all peace was lost.

The only thing that _did_ bugged him a little was the fact that Stiles sometimes used to pop out of nowhere and ruin their peaceful moments, fully rambling on about everything and nothing at the same time. And while Derek appreciated that Stiles made Dante laugh very hard, because his friend deserved a good smile for all the shit he endured, he was also pissed about the continuous intrusions, the bad jokes and the petty nicknames. Nevermind that Dante was always eager to have a good laugh.

Of course, had Derek not been such a sourwolf he would've also noticed the little sting he felt whenever the teen seemed to pay more attention to the white wolf than him… especially when he was threatening him and Stiles would still direct his babble at Dante.

* * *

The third week.

That's when Derek started noticing, _fucking-finally_, the little things.

_Seriously_, he should've seen it coming sooner.

He had always felt proud of himself for taking notice in the little details that usually were the only things you needed to solve the biggest mysteries, after all his enhanced senses (Alpha senses now, mind you) had always helped him before.

Apparently, this time they didn't work.

Things first got strange when the pack started to drag both older wolves into their usual activities, sure they got together for their usual training sessions and movie nights but to them, in Derek's opinion, it was already a custom for after their pack meetings. Also there was the fact that most of his pack consisted of teens, and given that Dante and him were several years older than the others then it was quite a bit weird as to why the guys would want them both to hang out with them. Like inviting them to their lacrosse games to cheer on their friends ("For god's sake, Derek. Just stop brooding under the bleachers." "Shut up, Stiles.") and then a nice pizza banquet when it was over, or getting together in the mall for a good shopping evening with the girls ("There's more in the world than just leather jackets, Derek. And no, scowling doesn't work on me." Derek could only glare harder at Lydia.), hell, they even had invited them to some of the weird and cheesy events that the school did for holidays. ("Come on, Derek. There's lots of games and food, it's like a fair. It'll be fun!" Derek chuckled. "Okay, Isaac, I'll go, I promise."). Even though the dark wolf thought it was quite weird, he still enjoyed the sentiment and the company nonetheless, besides the fact that his pack was very accepting of his friend made him very happy. But while the pack accepting Dante _did_ make him feel god, at one point he had to admit that the feeling was not as happy whenever Stiles did something with his best friend.

"Hey Derek." Dante greeted him one night as Derek was walking down the spiral staircase of his loft.

The black wolf stopped when he saw his friend packing up what looked like several bags of chips. "What's with all the junk food? There's no pack meeting tonight."

"I know." He said nonchalantly. "These are for Stiles and me." He said, not noticing how his friend's ears had perked at the mention of the boy's name. "He told me to pack as much kinds chips as I could."

It only took a second for Derek to understand the implication. "You're spending the night in his place?" He tried to sound uninterested but his tone sounded really off even to him, fortunately it seemed Dante had been none the wiser about it.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Last Sunday, when we got dragged to go shopping with Lydia, we came across a gamestop. I told Stiles that it had been too long since the last video game I played and then he started rambling about how _I wasted childhood_ and _that was sooooo wrong_ and that _I have to understand this incredible art_." He chuckled and shook his head. "Anyway, I better get going or my phone will be buzzing all the way there."

Derek didn't know what to say, so he decided to just nod.

"See you tomorrow, Der." Dante said patting his friend's shoulder on the way out.

As Dante's Ferrari was no longer within hearing range Derek allowed himself to plop down on his couch, groaning as his body adjusted to the position and _mostly_ because his own reactions had taken him by surprise.

The sudden upsetness, the grave tone, the stinging little irritation he felt in the stomach.

Even Derek wasn't _that_ emotionally constipated to not realize what was going on and to _also_ admit it like a man.

So he did.

He admitted it.

To himself.

In his room.

In the dark.

...Inside his mind.

Well, at least this was progress, right?

It was the wrong one, but it _was_ progress nonetheless.

Right?

* * *

By the fifth week Derek started to get more irritated over the now hard-to-fucking-ignore little things.

At first they were just stupid meaningless things like offering to go to pick up wood for the bonfire, or when they suddenly both offered to wash the dishes, or when they went out on errands to the nearest convenience store.

In retrospect it wasn't really something to over think, or so Derek kept telling himself over and over, but every time it happened the black wolf couldn't really help that gutting feeling in the bottom of his stomach and the irritation growing in the back of his head which was translated into the clenching of his fists.

He should've been happy, really, he _should _have, but no matter what he tried he just couldn't.

He had to keep telling himself that one of his pack members was being very acceptable with someone who was very important to their alpha, knowing Stiles as he did that was probably the reason behind such actions. But every time he saw that big bright smile in the boy's face, which was a smile he had filed as a special one that Stiles only used on the rare occasions when he was feeling _really_ happy without needing to hide his inner pain (seriously, since when did he start keeping tabs on that?), then and only then he couldn't help the churning feeling in his stomach which then got even more intense.

At first Derek could quickly convince himself that it was a little annoying how Stiles would smile brightly for stupid meaningless things him and Dante did together, or how stupid the boy was for laughing so hard at his old friend's lame jokes, and even he would think how little finesse the scrawny boy had whenever he was being completely inappropriate with his nonstop rambling (which only had Dante laughing very hard and enjoying the whole situation, coincidentally causing Derek to scowl harder at the boy).

"Are you okay?" Isaac asked him after sitting right next to him during one of their usual movie nights. Tonight was avenger's night… again... for the fifth time… in a row.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said not looking at the young beta. "What gave the opposite idea?" He asked curious.

"You don't seem like yourself." He said, watching closely how the others were bickering about who was hotter between Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr..

Instead of an answer Derek decided to grunt shrug, he didn't trust his voice to help his case. After all, since the young wolf lived with him, the apha thought that if anyone had a good chance in reading his expressions (besides Laura who used to do it very well and nowadays Stiles, of-fucking-course) it was the blonde-curly-haired boy.

"Everything's okay?" He asked again. This time his concern was more noticeable.

Derek couldn't help but to smile at his young beta's protectiveness. "Don't worry Isaac." He said turning to the pup. "I'm just a little tired." Technically that wasn't a lie.

This seemed good enough for the young teen and decided to let it to, if only because Stiles' rant listing the pros and cons between both Iron Man and Captain America had caught both his and Derek's attention.

Although the lanky slim teen's rant was for everyone in the room, Stiles was looking directly a Dante while doing his always-non-stopping babble. The white wolf in turn was merely nodding and smiling at the boy, making the boy smile as well.

The black wolf's stomach did another churning twist.

In retrospect, if Derek had had enough balls he would've been able to act in accordance with the inner development that was going on inside his brain, then things would've gone in a _whole_ different direction. Actually, Derek _did_ understand what was going on inside his brain (he already had gone through that process the night he knew Dante and Stiles would be playing video games alone), but that was a whole different story because _understanding_ and _admitting_ were two completely different words when being compared to the word _act_.

Needless to say, Derek's solution to the problem involved scowling and ignoring.

* * *

When the eighth week rolled around most of the pack thought that heads were about to roll.

Derek was (to say the least, and boy was that an understatement) glaring daggers at everything that came across his field of vision.

Also, he did it whenever Stiles and Dante were either out of his sight or whenever said people were within his field of vision _and_ weren't paying attention to him (that is to say, Stiles had _all_ of his attention on Dante).

He tried to be stealthy about it… he really _really_ tried.

Seriously.

But even his so famous impassive mask had a shelf life that couldn't be avoided for long.

And boy did that came back to bite him in the ass.

"_You_ are pathetic."

Derek's brows rose in surprise only for second before his face could return to his default frowning.

"Yes, I just said that and the entire pack thinks the same but the boys are just too scared to say it to your face, Allison is a little too hesitant about this and Erica just didn't want to bother."

"So it was best to send in the blunt one?"

The girl only stared at him.

The wolf sighed and pinched his nose bridge. "Lydia, what do you want?"

"I want to know why haven't you done anything about Stiles." she said resting her fists in her waist while looking intensively at his alpha.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Good thing was that Derek was a master of covering his emotions under his impassive face… but judging by the look the redheaded girl was giving him he figured it wasn't working with her like with the others.

"It's cute how you really believe that _that_ is going to work on me." She was giving him a condescending look while pointing at his scowl.

"_Lydia,_" he gritted out, "I really need to get over with these steaks for tonight's barbeque, so if you can skip the Peter-puzzle talk, please do so." He bitterly chopped the steak he was currently marinating.

The girl sighed and shook her head, not really believing how her alpha could be _that_ stupid.

"Nothing to say? Fine." He returned to chopping and marinating the steaks.

"You are so ridiculously obvious, you know?" She finally said.

Derek sighed again. "About what exactly?"

"You're really gonna make me says this aren't you?" Although Derek didn't have eyes in his back he clearly felt the way the girl was crossing her arms and giving the 'You're a complete and utter moron' look that she usually used with the other boys (Stiles most of the times).

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about." He said while chopping and marinating more steaks.

Lydia sighed exasperated. "Dante is going to take Stiles away from you." She simply said.

One of the things that Derek had really never thought he would be grateful about from having Laura as a big sister was that thanks to her incessant and unexpected pranks he was used to being thrown off and confused only to be able to regain his senses and be in full control within less than a few seconds, if it had been otherwise Derek's finger would've been cut off in that very instant when the butcher knife hit the wooden plank on which he was chopping the steaks.

The strawberry blonde girl shook her head, as if she couldn't believe how much of an idiot Derek Hale was. "Fine, just so you know if Dante _does_ make a move and scores _I_ won't allow you to mop about it later." And with that she paced out of the kitchen.

As the clopping sound of Lydia's steps started to sound farther and farther away the wolf stood there, his brain was partially perceiving how the girl's steps joined the collective ruckus that the pack had going on in the backyard of the now reconstructed Hale manor. His hands quickly left the butcher knife and the steak all forgotten on the wooden plank, fingers pressing his temple and smearing sauce all over his face.

As much as he wanted to ignore the issue so it could just vanish he knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to be like that, it wasn't going to be easy coping with it either and now less than ever thanks to Lydia's words… which by the way were still resonating in his head like a fucking gong announcing the beginning of a fight.

His inner fight.

Fuck.

* * *

Despite his logic, his reason, his sanity, his hopes and, most importantly of all, his fucking _dignity_, Derek decided to heed Lydia's advice and do something about this… thing he had going on. And so, of-fucking-course, he went ahead and did the most the idiotic thing he could think of.

"So the wolf has _finally_ reasoned." She said with a satisfying smugly look on her face while Derek was doing his 'Wipe that stupid look of your mug before I rip out your throat with my teeth' scowl. Lydia sighted. "Fine, I'll help you, but only because is for Stiles _and_ because we all know that for this kind of stuff you're too pathetic and hopeless for your own good to actually do something for yourself."

Derek sighed.

Yep.

This was going to bite him _really_ good in the ass.

* * *

They weren't even doing any planning and Derek was already regretting this.

Lydia's first action was to inform the entire pack.

It was Friday afternoon and the beginning of summer break when the pack had one of his usual meetings, this time to celebrate the end of school (as if they ever needed a good excuse to just gather around and have a good time anyway), when the redheaded girl took the chance to let the others into her new scheme. Conveniently sending off Stiles and Dante to buy more junk food for the night as she informed the others of the current situation.

Derek sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose, mostly because sending those two off was not helping his case.

He knew he was in for some real annoying comments on his now admitted feelings towards-

"_Dude_, you just figured that out?" Scott asks mildly amused and throwing him a look that said 'I can believe you're really _this_ stupid.'

"Honestly Derek," said Isaac looking all smugly and shit in Derek's opinion, "even _Scott_ had it figured it out since the start."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Allison giggled. "It wasn't really that hard to figure it out, you know? I think it's was really cute." She flashed him one of her dimpled smiles.

Derek once again had to use his ability to not let emotions show on his face. "So _everyone_ pretty much knew what was going on from the very start?" He said with the blankest face he could muster which, considering how Erica started to giggle, he figured it wasn't that convincing.

"Actually, you couldn't have been more obvious even if you raised banners that had written 'I love you' in big bold capitals." She said while cackling by imagining her own suggested scenario. Boyd just shrugged and nodded, clearly agreeing with her.

Jackson laughed as well. "The whole situation is so pathetically obvious that I just want to throw up." Lydia looked at him like saying 'Seriously?', not really surprised by her boyfriend's lack of subtlety with words.

"Anyway, the thing _is_ now that Mr. McScowlington _finally_ admitted his true feelings out loud we're all going to help him get Stiles back." The red headed girl said causing mixed up reactions.

Derek scowled, again. "What exactly do you mean with 'Get him back'? We were never together to begin with."

"Oh, honey. You really _are_ hopeless." Lydia sighed.

Erica and Allison agreed, one looking happy with the idea and the other grinning wickedly with mischief.

Boyd and Isaac shrugged not minding the whole situation, the curly haired one looked hopeful about it while the other kept his stoic look.

Scott nodded while doing one of his trademark smiles, looking happy to help his best friend. Jackson nodded as well, mostly because he knew he wouldn't be able to bail out of this if Lydia had already planned to do something, which implied she would force him to help, but also because he also thought he could get a good laugh out of this and Danny just gave him sympathetic smile.

Derek just looked skyward, as if asking for strength, not really believing his life and the fact that he knew he was in for some of the most humiliating moments of his life. He also scowled when his brain got ahold of the nickname.

"Okay, now that we're all set..." said Erica standing from her seating spot, which was Boyd's lap by the way, all hyped up. "Let's begin 'Operation Frivals' right away!"

Everybody looked at her like she was crazy.

"What?"

"'Operation Frivals'?" Asked Scott all confused.

"Yeah," like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because Derek and Dante are really good friends but now, since they'll compete for Stiles, they'll become rivals."

They all kept looking, expecting her to complete her reasoning.

Erica huffed annoyed. "They're great friends but now they'll be rivals, you know? They're friends and rivals. Frivals." She said beaming.

Everyone kept staring for a few silent beats.

"Okay, seriously," said Danny clearing his throat, "You _really_ need to spend less time with Stiles, and FYI, you plan's name sounds more like 'Fried balls' but i'm just saying."

Boyd nodded and Erica scoffed.

While the pack started to laugh and bicker about what to do for this so called 'Operation Frivals' Derek couldn't help the small chuckled that had escaped his lips while he shook his head.

Only _his_ life could be like this.

* * *

'Operation Frivals' officially began on the ninth week.

It was by far a flying start for sure.

Mostly because the first person to offer help was Scott.

To say that it was bad would be an understatement.

Scott's idea to bring Derek and Stiles closer to each other was having them do activities together, as if they already haven't done a few by the way, which it is why under the brunette's suggestion they went to the mall only to have everybody quickly spreading around to 'mind their own business' while Scott worked his plan. The only ones who were left were Scott, Stiles, Dante and Derek.

"We should go play at the arcade!" Said Scott very enthusiastic.

"Dude! That's great," seconded Stiles with a grin before letting it slip, "wait, maybe we should do something else."

"Why?"

"What do you guys feel like doing?" Stiles asked turning to the older wolves.

Dante merely shrugged. "You know me Stiles," he said smiling, "I wouldn't mind a good challenge."

Derek said nothing as he started feeling too much out of place when he saw the lingering smile between Dante and Stiles. He started to doubt this stupid plan could even get him a look from the slim boy.

"What about you Derek?" Quickly interceded Scott noticing the goo-goo eyes in the other two. Derek had to roll his eyes at the beta wolf as if to say '_Really_ subtle McCall.'

"You wanna come too?!" Stiles asked all baffled.

The dark wolf glared. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on, Sourwolf!" Stiles cried, making Dante chuckle at the nickname and Derek glare back at the white wolf, it was always the same. "You can't blame me for not really even being able to think about the possibility that you could be into video games!"

"What? Because I'm not fun?"

"More like you're afraid to show it."

"Just because I prefer to be the kind of serious person, that doesn't mean I don't know how to have fun, Stiles."

"Well, as I said, you can't really blame me for not thinking it when you're not exactly Mr. Sunshine."

"Have you ever thought that maybe not everyone likes to be hyped up all the time?"

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with being happy with the things you like!"

And so they began to biker again.

Scott was wincing, thinking that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, and Dante was just watching them with an amused grin and shaking his head.

"I guess the arcade was a bad idea after all." Scott asks turning to Dante who in turn turned to the young wolf with a smile.

"Don't worry Scott, actually Derek is quite good at video games. Almost in a geek kind of level."

"WHAT!?" Stiles cried while Derek shouted "Shut up!"

"He is?" Asked Scott genuinely amazed.

"Oh, totally." Dante reaffirmed, while Derek was busy glaring daggers at his friend.

"Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that _Sourwolf_ is really good at video games?" Stiles asked baffled, being glared at now.

Dante took his time to answer, glancing first at Stiles who was still a little surprised, then at Derek who was still shooting daggers, and then back at Stiles to give him a devilish smirk. "Guess we'll have to go to the arcade to find out." And with that he walked away to the arcade.

Dante keep smiling all the way to the arcade as he smelled anxiety from Scott while listening to Stiles and Derek's bickering.

To Stiles and Scott's amazement Dante was right, Derek was actually _really_ good at video games, specially the shooting kind of games (which is kind of ironic when you think about it). So good in fact that the black wolf was able to give both of the teens a run for their money in a couple of games. Unfortunately, since Dante had spent more time practicing with Stiles (not all of their video game sessions had been late at night, just in case you were wondering) he was better at this than his friend, which obviously led to Dante kicking Derek ass and receiving all kinds of praises from the lanky kid.

So basically the whole video game thing didn't help Derek at all.

Scott knew his ass was in for some real bad kicking, if Derek's murderous gaze was anything to go by.

And for the next several training sessions, if the young wolf's back had gotten more than acquainted with the same oak tree behind the Hale manor nobody mentioned it.

* * *

The next contributor for 'Operation Frivals' (and someone should seriously come up with a better name for that) was Isaac.

The young curly haired boy's idea was to use Stiles' love of pets as a common ground between his friend and his alpha (is not like Derek hated animals, which would've been kind of hypocritical of him, but he couldn't say that he didn't really enjoy petting them and playing).

Having accepted a part time job at Deaton's Isaac was mostly in charge of looking after the animals, usually cleaning their cages or feeding them. So thinking that the best way for Stiles and Derek to bond was over pets, the blonde teen arrange for them to be at the vet clinic with him helping with feeding the animals.

Unlike Scott, Isaac knew how to be more subtle, convincing, and over all he had those incredibly huge and shiny puppy eyes that almost _always_ got him what he wanted. So naturally he practically puppy-eyed-bribed Derek and Stiles into helping him with the animals in the clinic. His excuse for this was that Deaton was out of town (which was true) and that Scott had to run a few errands and deliver a nice box of chinese take out for his mom (which was also true). Hence why Derek was awkwardly standing in the back entrance of the clinic with Isaac while waiting for Stiles to show up.

While Derek started to awkwardly shift back and forth on his spot Isaac opted to get the sacks of food ready, he really didn't need to get all nervous like his alpha, though is not like he could blame the guy. So after trying to make more meaningless conversation to ease the tension off the older boy both wolves suddenly jerked their heads when they heard the distinctive sound of Stiles' jeep, Isaac could already hear Derek's heart starting to race with anticipation as the jeep started to park outside the clinic. What definitely caught Derek off guard, as well as Isaac, was the soft scent of lavender and cotton that came together with Stiles' own scent.

"Hey guys!" The voice of the slim teen filled the place as he turned around the corner of the building… with Dante following behind.

Somehow Derek felt cursed.

"Whoa, Derek, what are you doing here buddy?"

"Isaac asked me to help with the animals." he answered, almost gritting.

"Seriously?! Hey Isaac why didn't you tell me? I thought we were going to do this all by ourselves so that's why I called Dante and ask if he wanted to lend a hand." He said looking back to the white wolf and smiling at him.

Dante only shrugged and smiled. "I like animals… obviously." he added chuckling.

"But seriously dude, you should've told that Derek was coming too." the slim boy said while almost flailing.

"Yeah, well it's just that- I mean I was on my way out and- and Derek was just kind of there so I- I- umm thought it would be good for him to join us… so, yeah." he shrugged.

Derek could only hold back his 'Are you fucking kidding me?!' expression for so long, which it was at best a few seconds. Isaac instead made the sheepish face he could come up with, obviously doing the puppy eyes as well.

"Well good to know you care to do other things than just brood in a corner, Sourwolf." he said laughing at his own joke.

Dante snorted in derision.

"What are you laughing at?" Derek asks Dante, sending him a narrowed murderous gaze.

"Well, I don't know you, but I certainly haven't forgot about your little 'dilemma' with certain animals." he answers remarking the word in a hidden message.

Just when Derek was about to ask him what the fuck he was talking about that's when he remembered, he remembered his major problem with a certain species of animal.

Cats.

The problem was that cats hated Derek.

No, seriously.

Cats hated him and he didn't understand why. Many, who knew Derek, had said that it was because of his wolf, which was not true because he recalled perfectly that in his old days as a little kid some of his cousins, werewolves as well, used to play with cats and the animals had no problem with them. The problem came whenever Derek tried to play with them, the animals would immediately go into a hissy fit and run away from him. He even remembers Dante playing with stray cats they used to find in the park and not once being rejected by them, but as soon as he tried to play with the animals too it would be the same thing as with his cousins all over again.

"What kind of problem?" Stiles asked curios.

"Nothing." The alpha answered almost immediately, causing Stiles to give him a skeptical look.

As Derek tried to not squirm to obviously under Stiles' gaze Dante clapped his hands. "So Isaac, are we suppose to help with those sacs?"

"Uh, yeah. Just help me dump the food into those containers over there and then we can take them inside to fill the plates for the animals."

As soon as Dante was out with a pair of sacs Isaac followed behind with a couple of containers. When Derek moved to grab a sac and follow the others outside he stopped when he found himself still under Stiles' gaze.

"What?" He asked more harshly that he intended to.

"So what kind of problem do you actually have?" He asked with an unblinking stare.

Although the wolf was standing perfectly still, he was sure the kid could see him trying to hold back the squirming. "I already said it. Nothing. Nothing's wrong with anything… at all."

Fuck. He shouldn't have said it like that because now Stiles is looking at him with a shit-eating-grin that was like he just won the fucking jackpot.

"Oh _really_?" The boy remarks the word while crossing his arms, his grin widening.

One of those smiles that makes you weak in the knee.

Aaand, yep, Derek was fucked.

"Yeah," the wolf quickly replies as he breezes past Stiles without looking at him, "There's nothing wrong so there's nothing to talk about. Let's go, the others are waiting." And after stacking three bags in his arms to cover his eyes from the kid, Derek rushed out the building as he heard Stiles snorting.

The rest of the day was spent helping Isaac with the feeding as they had agreed, with the blonde boy managing the containers, Dante and Stiles distributing the food and, finally, Derek going back and forth with more bags whenever the containers ran out of food. The day itself was not a total waste as he was bonding even more with one of his betas, his first beta nonetheless (not counting Jackson because he went all scally first), but taking into account that Stiles and Dante kept giggling with their own insides jokes... well, the black wolf couldn't really say that this was bringing him any closer to the flailing kid as they barely exchanged words during the task.

Later back on the loft Derek was enjoying the silence while reading (or at least trying to instead of sulking in the corner) when a plastic bag was dumped in front of him, his eyes went from the bag to person in front of the bag. A sheepish smiling Isaac.

"Chinese." he said at his alpha's questioning brow.

"I know. I could smell it since you parked, but exactly what for is the real question."

"It's an 'Apology chinese take out.'" The curly haired boy said, when he saw Derek's brow going even higher he added. "For today. My plan was terrible, so I wanted to apologize."

As he remained silent for a few beats, Derek started to get the smell of sadness and guilt. "Well first, bring me a beer, then put on a good movie and I'll consider you forgiven." He said with a little tug of his lips.

As the young wolf beamed and scrambled off to the kitchen Derek decided that all in all this day, while not bringing any kind of advance to his real goal, it hadn't really been a total waste, and as the curly haired boy started the first Lord of the Rings movie… well, either way there wasn't really anyone who could stay mad at Isaac for too long.

* * *

The next participant for 'Operation Frivals' (and every time his mind even uttered the words Derek felt like he had to slap himself) were Erica and Boyd… actually it was more Boyd than Erica, because when the blonde girl had suggested a full out orgy she was immediately vetoed if the alpha's suffering sigh was anything to go by.

Erica pouted.

Under Boyd suggestion they decided to try this time a nice skating session at the ice rink, and to make it not so obvious Boyd suggested to invite the entire pack. When the young wolf saw his alpha's questioning brow he immediately said they would break it into 'boys playing hockey while girls just skated around.'

Because the last thing he needed was for the whole thing to turn into a couple's ice rink night.

After texting the entire pack about the plan, to which everyone answered really quick if anyone asked Derek (seriously, is it too much to ask to be this diligent when it comes to more serious matters?), Derek found himself awkwardly fidgeting in one of the benches of the ice rink while putting on his personal ice skates. He grumbled every time his shaky hands failed to properly help him with the task at hand.

When Derek felt a looming presence he stopped to notice Boyd standing right behind him, but just as he was wondering if this is how Stiles felt about his creeping around tendencies he noticed his beta giving him a questioning brow.

"I'm not sure this will work." he simply stated.

"You have to relax, you know." The calm teen said, ever so stoic.

"Easy for you to say when you already have your girl in your pocket." The alpha countered with a small tug of his lips.

The muscled teen only smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I'm not in his pocket, or in anyone's pocket for that matter. For your information I'm really hard to get." Both wolves heard the girl complain from wherever she was, causing them to chuckle.

"Anyway, just relax and enjoy." Boyd said one more time patting his alpha in the shoulder and wandered off to find Erica.

Later, after the whole pack arrived, the night turned out just like Boyd had suggested with girls making skating challenges between them and the boys playing hockey. They separated into two teams: Scott, Stiles Isaac and Dante against Jackson, Danny, Boyd and Derek. At first Derek didn't know if this arrangement was okay with him and Stiles being on opposite teams (thanks you, Jackson and Scott for picking the teams) but somehow, to his surprise, a few minutes into the game he ended up blocking Stiles.

"So the Big Bad Wolf thinks he can block me?" The boy teased shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Are you really suggesting you can bring me down by launching yourself at me?" He replied smugly.

Derek could've said it was a spur of the moment, that Stiles' cheekiness caused him to blur his words out because it was easy to fall into an easy banter with the boy (which it was), but what he certainly wasn't expecting was for the boy to stutter and to avoid looking into his eyes.

'_Is he… blushing?'_

If there was something undeniable in their pack it was Stiles' constant defiant attitude, regardless of whether he had any chance or not against whatever it was he was facing… or simply annoying the other party for the heck of it. Sometimes he was a jerk like that. But seeing the boy before him blushing for a very low leveled and, may he honestly admit, a very bad innuendo that would even make his betas roll in laughter at him, then Derek couldn't really stop his heart from starting to beat wildly against his chest.

Was this new development a sign that he actually had a chance?

It had to be… or so he hoped. And the world be damned if he didn't make the most of this chance.

So it was only natural that, just when Derek's brain started to grind its gears again to find something to say and see how much farther he could get, the mood was ruined when a small black and round puck suddenly slipped in between his legs. In the next moment, all Derek could do to not curse whatever deities caused this misery to simply laugh at him was to push Stiles aside and prepare himself for the crash... a loud crash that made the black wolf feel like the world was suddenly turned upside down and made his back turn all cold and slippery.

"Stiles are you okay?" Dante's voice came over Derek's ears, he sounded a little bit concerned.

"Urgh…," Derek heard the boy groan, "I think so. A little bit scratched but otherwise fine… which is more than I can say for them." Stiles said pointing at the mess almost smeared to the wall.

Derek could already feel some injuries healing (heavens bless werewolf healing) as he tried to untangle himself from under Scott and Jackson, both betas groaning in pain from the crash.

"Guys are you okay?" Allison's concerned voice came over as she approached with Lydia behind her.

Soon all the pack was there helping them to get back on their feet. Allison and Isaac helping Scott, Lydia and Danny picking up Jackson and Boyd offering a hand to Derek, who gave a glad smile to his beta. Both of the young crashed wolves seemed like they still needed to pop back in some bones… Derek was hoping for that so he could pop them out later… maybe in a private training session.

"What the hell was that?" Stiles flailed. "Seriously, you guys almost rammed us over!" He cried holding his side

"It was Jackson's fault!"

"Oh no, hell no, McCall. Don't try to put the blame on me."

"Well, if you could just give it a rest and stop being so competitive."

"Well you should first stop trying to take the spotlight."

"Enough!" Shouted Derek effectively silencing both boys, and making everyone else tense up immediately… everyone except Dante. "You two should be more careful. You're lucky I was able to get Stiles out of the way before you rammed us."

"Good thing Der-bear has quick reflexes." Dante said nonchalantly, causing everyone hold back a laugh and making Derek glare daggers at him. The white wolf smiled sheepishly.

"_Anyway_," said Derek clearing his throat, "You two know better than to let things get out of control like this, so I'm afraid punishment will be held later." He said firmly, making Scott slump down ashamed and Jackson sulk.

"Derek, it's okay." Stiles tried to calm down the alpha. "I always get shoved around one way or another so there's no real- ouch!" He suddenly hissed holding his right side.

"Stiles, what's wrong?" Erica asked worried.

Derek tried to hurry to check the boy but Dante beat him to it before he could even move a muscle, he tried not to frown too much. He also tried to not to look to jealous when his friend started touching the boy's side, obviously trying to figure out what was wrong… he wasn't above admitting that he didn't like it though.

"It looks like you have a few bruised ribs," Dante said making a pause while trying to see if there was anything more to check, "maybe you'll get a few sore muscles as well, but i think the ribs are the only serious things to worry about for now." He reassured while standing up again.

"Lucky me, huh?" The boy said sarcastically.

"Well, you've definitely had it worst before." Isaac joked making everyone chuckle, which Derek did not really appreciate very much but since Stiles also chuckled at that he decided to let it go.

"Anyway, we better get you to lay down and rest a bit." Said Dante gently guiding the slim boy out of the ice rink.

"I have a first aid kit in my car." Allison said and left to get it and Lydia followed behind.

Danny suggested getting back to play some more hockey, making Scott and Jackson get back into the rink with Isaac following behind and Erica, who this time decided to join in the game as well, all the while Derek stood on his place while watching Dante take Stiles to the back room.

So much for the chance he had a few seconds ago.

Before he could ponder about the situation again Jackson and Scott's shouting at each other brought him back to reality, he couldn't help but to flare his nostrils.

"Tell you what," Boyd said from behind him, "I'll help you give them a good thrashing."

Feeling a little surprised Derek couldn't help for a questioning brow to rise and disappear in his hairline.

"First, a good hockey thrashing, and then, we can arrange a special 'training session.'" He said nonchalantly.

Derek chuckled.

He honestly couldn't help it.

"I'll let you work out the routine." He simply said. Boyd smiled and nodded at his alpha before heading into the game as well.

Derek had to admit (begrudgingly but still) that while things were not going how he wished they were, not everything in this ridiculous plan was a complete loss.

A few days later, during their next training session, all it took for Allison and Lydia to not complain at the fact both their boyfriends were being practically shoved around like ragdolls was for Boyd to point in Stiles' direction, who was sitting next to Dante on the top step of the house porch and holding his side every now and then, and mutter 'hockey' before he went back to kick some more ass.

Allison and Lydia could only shrug in defeat while their boys endured the punches.

Erica, who was sitting on the first step of the house porch together with Isaac, muttered that an orgy wouldn't have caused so much trouble, causing his boyfriend to look at her with an undecipherable look and his alpha to almost facepalm himself while trying not to sigh too loudly.

Isaac was laughing his ass off.

* * *

Three days after the training session in which Scott and Jackson got their asses handed to them, a Saturday morning to be more precise, Derek was about to start his morning coffee of the day when the door of the loft slide open and revealed a scowling Jackson fidgeting in the entrance. His hands deep in his pockets while trying to burn a hole in the floor with his glare.

Seeing his beta's stance and judging by the acrid smell of repressed anger Derek quickly came to a conclusion as to why Jackson was there, he had to massage his temple with his free hand before uttering the only word needed.

"Lydia?" he said with a sigh.

Jackson nodded. "She said to stop sitting on my ass and help too."

The black wolf took another sip of his coffee. "Tell you what, I'll serve you some coffee and then we can spend the rest of the morning watching a few games." He couldn't help to smile when he saw the boy perking up at the suggestion.

After preparing more coffee and plopping down on the couch, Derek and Jackson enjoyed the rest of the morning just relaxing while watching games. The alpha told himself to enjoy these calm moments before the next stupid plan to get Stiles and him together came around to take his dignity away.

* * *

Next contestants for the plan whose-title-Derek-will-not-even-utter-with-his-mind-ever-again were (according to Stiles) the dynamic duo of the pack: Allison and Lydia.

Allison and _Lydia_.

This was a literal translation for "Lydia will make your life miserable while Allison just tries to provide moral and emotional comfort."

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Seriously, What else could he say but that? Especially while being forced to shop for 'more enticing clothes' according to the redheaded (strawberry blonde, Derek) bossy girl.

"Stop frowning so much." he heard the girl bark another order at him. "You look like you're being strangled by clothes laced with wolfsbane."

_It almost feels that way._

Derek was facing himself in a big ass mirror, he was checking (actually like being checked) in what he felt was the hundredth outfit of the day. They went out (actually he was forced to go with the girls) to some store he couldn't even remember the name, nor that he cared for that matter, to get a whole new wardrobe for the black wolf to wear and make Stiles gawk at him, make the young boy swoon and finally, fucking finally, get him to accept a small and cozy dinner which would end in them kissing and admitting their feelings for each other… according to Lydia.

Derek held back the idea that maybe the girl had seen way too many of those weird cheesy movies she liked so much to come up with these kind of things. He figured it was just a girl thing since Allison was next to her friend flashing her usual dimpled smile, probably thinking all of this was so romantic and what not. He could practically see the fluffy and honeyed images forming in her head. Derek also figured it could get worse if she pictured her and Scott in such scenes.

He shuddered at that.

Jesus Christ, no wonder Stiles usually felt repulsed whenever he had to see them sucking face at school.

"That one looks good," he was brought back to his personal nightmare when the other girl spoke, "Now why don't try out this combination? Let's see if we can top this one."

"Can you _pleas_e tell me we're almost done with this?" He almost sighed, not whined. He was an alpha, an alpha who his mother trained to be a respectable one. He did _not_ whine. Thank you very much.

Lydia took her time looking at his alpha, with a measuring stare. Derek really had to fight back the urge to twitch. "Well, let just do this last one and we can be on our way." She said turning to the last combination she had readied.

The alpha let out a relieved sigh.

After the clothing ordeal Derek had to carry several bags of clothes ('we're ladies and you should be a gentleman, besides those are _your_ clothes') that he didn't want to buy as they made their way back to the camaro and drove back to his loft while Lydia went about the plan she had for tonight.

Basically it was organizing a nice dinner for the pack in her house (go figure that one out) and have Derek show up in tantalizing clothes to make Stiles gape in wonder, have them sit together to chat while eating, enlighten the evening with some fine wine (that Derek also had to buy for), and finally Lydia would wrangle the pack to the living room and casually make Derek and Stiles sit together to chat some more before, slowly but surely, making the pack leave little by little to make sure they would be the last two to leave. Derek would drive Stiles back home, walk him to the house entrance and give him a goodnight kiss.

If Derek hadn't been driving he would've facepalm himself right on the spot.

Lydia definitely had to stop seeing the notebook so much, and judging by how the plan was making Allison all giddy he also figured he needed these two spend more time with Erica. Maybe she was not all that practical and realistic but least his beta was no this cheesy… or so he hoped. But for now it was best to go with this weird plan, mostly because he knew better than to go against Lydia whenever she came up with romantic matchmaking shit. It never bode well for anyone, much less for him with his romantic track record.

Anyway, turns out the whole dinner with the pack thing wasn't going too bad to say the least. Yes, Scott and Allison were being too romantic and secretive, Erica and Boyd were being too shameless and stoic respectively, Isaac was just trying to have a good time chatting with Danny, Lydia and Jackson were being their usual selves and maybe Stiles was a bit more chatty and tactile than usual with Dante (which made Derek's stomach twist with sadness by the way) but all and all, the entire thing made the black wolf feel that sensation he had felt gone since long... the feeling of family.

As the night moved on, and Lydia practically hauled them into the living room, Derek felt once again happy to see them all in there with him. His pack together and happy.

The rest of the night consisted mostly of jokes being thrown around and general chatter.

Derek would lie if he said he didn't enjoyed how the rest of the night turned out, he would be a horrible liar if he said that the whole dinner thing didn't make him feel like how he felt every night before the fire happened, and he would've become an even worse liar than Scott if he denied that this is what he thought he could never have again in his life.

To have a pack again, a family.

_However_

Things that night would've been better if he could've had at least had the chance to talk with Stiles or even sit beside him at all, because just as when they sit to have dinner, as soon as they moved to the living room Stiles immediately sat right next to Dante and Scott swoop right beside his friend. He got so engrossed in the talk that the clueless wolf never noticed Lydia's death glare, or even his girlfriend suffering sighing.

So much for the big plan.

After what Derek thought would be another not-so-wasted-but-still-complete-failed attempt at getting Stiles and him together, he was surprised when he came back from the bathroom to find said boy happily giggling in the sofa, clearly more than tipsy, and everyone else gone.

"Stiles?" he tried not sure what to expect from this situation.

The boy only stopped whatever weird movement he was doing to look at the wolf.

"Where's everyone else?" He asked after looking around.

The boy shrugged. "Gone."

He rolled his eyes. "I can see that, you know."

"Okey dokey." the boy said returning to moving weird on his spot.

Derek rose a questioning brow. Worse things was he didn't even feel creeped out by this, while this was all because of the alcohol he couldn't really say this wasn't normal Stiles behavior.

"Good, you're finally back." The hostess' voice brought the wolf back to reality. Lydia was standing in the hallway that led to the kitchen, her hands hooked in her waist and her foot gently tapping the floor. "They all started to filter out after you left for the bathroom. God knows what the hell you were doing in there that you didn't even notice that they all started to go home. I just hoped you washed your hands properly." She brushing past him and picking up some empty glasses ignoring Derek's glare at her comment.

"I wasn't doing anything unusual." he defended. Lydia only looked at him as if to say 'Sure you didn't' but smiled anyway.

"Well, just so you know you're in charge of him." And she signaled the boy on the sofa who started to giggle once again. "He had a few more shots than usual."

"I can see that, thank you." He said frowning. "But why me?"

The girl could only look at him with a 'are you fucking kidding me' look. Derek sighed.

"No, that's not it. I meant to ask what happened to the others? It's weird that Scott left him like this. Hell, why did Dante even leave him like this? He's usually the one to look after him more often than not." He tried not to sulk too much at those words, but that didn't take away the fact it was true.

"True, but you can thank me for that one." she said smugly.

"Why?" he asked doubting he wanted to know the answer.

"Well, after you left Allison started to feel a little dizzy and Scott offer to take her home. He asked Stiles if he was okay and he just waved them off saying there was no problem. Then, Isaac mentioned something about needing to get up early in the morning for the vet clinic and asked Dante for a ride home. He suggested to also take Stiles with them but then Stiles started to whine about staying some more and then I said that you could take him back home." She smiled as if to say 'now adore me because I'm a genius.'

"Okay," he drawled, "Then I'm guessing Jackson went upstairs, but where are Danny, Boyd and Erica?"

"Because that's the important stuff to focus on, right?"Lydia sighed with exasperation, her alpha could not be more idiot even if he tried. "Stiles, honey?" she turned to the boy.

Stiles stopped whatever he was doing and stood up to bow at Lydia. "What can I do for you my lovely lady?" he said smiling widely.

"Honey, Derek here is going to take you home okay?" she pointed to the wolf, "Be a good little boy and go outside to wait for him."

"Yes my princess." He answered almost immediately and went out the door almost skipping.

_Skipping_.

For fuck's sake, just how much wine did the kid had while Derek wasn't looking?

Just as he was about to head out as well he stopped when he saw Lydia staring at him. "What?"

"You better make this one count." she said before strutting upstairs, leaving him alone.

Derek could only sigh and shook his head as he went outside.

When Derek got to the camaro Stiles was leaning on the driver's door, his hands tucked in his pockets while he hummed some song he didn't know. The boy smiled when he finally noticed him standing in front of him.

"Hey there Sourwolf," he drawled while giggling at his own words, "have you tried saying it several times in a row? It sounds funny."

The wolf sighed once more, he didn't know exactly how this was his chance. "Just get in the car." He said going around the car while gently pulling the kid along, and opening the door once on the other side.

"My, my, Derek," the teen slurred, "how chivalrous of you." he said playfully, in an almost flirty kind of way. Derek had to swallow hard.

The drive to Stiles' house was quiet at the beginning, with the boy mostly just shifting in his place while the wolf tried to keep his eyes on the road. The alpha could relax for short periods of time just by listening to the boy's calm breathing, it was really soothing to him. But just a few blocks before arriving to the boy's house Derek couldn't help to worry when Stiles' heart rate started to pick up, he could now smell nerves and anxiety.

He got his answer when he walked the teen to his porch.

"I'm sorry." He said in a low voice.

Derek frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry, about tonight I mean." he said once more in a small voice, his hands fidgeting with the keys.

Derek was even more confused now. "I'm not sure I understand you, Stiles."

The boy sighed. "You don't have to fake it, Derek." The alluded wolf frowned even more confused. "I'm sorry that Lydia force you to take care of me tonight."

_Ah, so it was that_. "Stiles, I'm not-"

"I'm also sorry for the past few weeks." the boy suddenly blurted out.

Okay, the black wolf was seriously lost now.

"I know you never said anything and that you were happy just by getting to see an old friend again and getting to spend time together after so much time apart, but we really wanted to help too, you know? We figured if we welcomed Dante into the pack and accept him in everything we did then that would make you very happy too." The alpha saw the boy blush a little. "Maybe I overdid it a bit with all the things I kept dragging him to do with me taking him away from you," he said bowing his head down in shame, Derek started to feel very warm inside. "But, I swear, I only did it because I figured it was a quick way to get him to open to us and for you to be even more happy and then… maybe you-"

"Stiles?"

When said call reach both of their ears they turned around to find the sheriff carefully eyeing both of them, his face had one of those serious expressions that almost always made silent promises to murder in several painful ways.

Derek had to repress the goosebumps he always got whenever the sheriff saw him with his usual 'I-can-protect-my-son-from-predators-like-you-with-my-shotgun-Hale' expression, which was every time the man saw him near his son.

"Hey dad."

"I thought you would already be asleep by now." The man's gaze turning to Derek. "You said the dinner wouldn't take that long." The sheriff smiled inwardly when he noticed the young wolf's slight shiver.

"We just lost track of time, dad." The boy replied not noticing anything. "Beside, I may have drank a little more than usual, so Derek gave me a ride back home. Actually, Lydia made him." He corrected. His face turning a little bit serious at that. A movement that both Derek and the Sheriff took note of.

"I see." He said after a few seconds to break the silence. "Well then, why don't you go inside, wash your face and then hit the pillow, okay?" The boy nodded, gave the wolf a goodbye wave and went inside the house. "Derek." he called sternly, making the wolf freeze in place. "Thanks, for bringing him. I appreciate you looking after him, even if it was only because of Lydia bossing you into doing it."

Derek chuckled. "It was not because of Lydia, sir. I would gladly help your son whenever he asked. Hell, I would do anything in my power to help him even if he never said anything." he finished with a small smile.

Both men stood under the porch light in silence for a few seconds before the sheriff let out a heavy sigh, Derek thought he was implying he was very tired. But before Derek could even excuse himself to let the man rest, the sheriff beat him to it with words of his own.

"You should tell him, son."

Words that completely threw him off. "I'm sorry, sir?"

The sheriff smiled, like couldn't believe how thick this kid was being. "I meant to say that you should tell my son how feel about him."

Yeah, the sheriff was definitely a man of the direct approach… or more like 'beat you over the head with a bat to get my point through' kind of guy, as Stiles would put it.

"I don't- I never- I mean- I wasn't-"

"It's okay, son. I just want you to know, that I trust you to take care him, I'm not blind to reality. Now, I'm not saying that I'm particularly happy about the situation _but_..." he took a pause to sigh, "I know I can trust _you_, and I wouldn't want to have it any other way." With a final pat on the shoulder and a small smile the sheriff started climbing the steps of the porch.

Derek was dumbfounded. He didn't know what to say or do.

"Just know this Derek," the man said behind him, "One thing I _can_ tell you for sure is that life is mostly about only two choices: you either take the risk or take the regret. Anything else is up to you." With those last words the sheriff closed the door behind him, leaving the young wolf to his thoughts.

Needless to say, the alpha didn't get any sleep that night trying to process all the information he had acquired in the last hours by simply staring at the ceiling.

_You either take the risk or take the regret. Anything else is up to you._

The sheriff's last words echoed in his mind even as daylight broke through his window.

* * *

The decisive day was on Friday.

That day, after a heated and kind of blurry work out session, Derek took the entire pack to a local carnival that had been in town for almost a week already. Tired of the drama and stress from the ridiculous plan to get Stiles and him together he thought it would be nice to unwind just this once and try to think about anything else than the slim boy, if it was even possible.

That is to say it wasn't.

Just as last time they came to one of these things the whole pack spread out as soon as they crossed the main gate.

Derek looked upwards asking for strength… more than usual.

After several hours of walking around the place, mostly scowling at the public in general while viciously eating hot dogs, the alpha decided to take a rest on the farthest bench he could find in the food court of the fair. He kept eating his hot dog with the usual frown in place trying to eye to death anything that dared to come close to him, which was his usual brooding mode.

It had been almost a week already since that night at Lydia's when Derek gave Stiles a ride back home and had that weird conversation with the boy, also not forgetting the conversation he had with the Sheriff right after that. He had been debating for almost week what to do in regards to what the sheriff had said.

_You should tell him, son._

_I know I can trust you, and I wouldn't have it any other way._

_You either take the risk or the regret. Anything else is up to you._

It was precisely those last words that constantly made echo in his mind.

Before he could ponder any more on those words he was interrupted when he heard his name being called.

"Hey, Der-der." when the black wolf turned around he saw Dante walking to him.

"Already done with all the games?" he asked before taking another bite of his hot dog.

Dante shook his head. "Actually no, we were about to get in line for the roller coaster when Stiles and Scott said they needed a food break." he said signaling behind him

Derek followed his friend's direction and saw both boys perusing through the menus from the several food stands.

"Though I don't know if they should be filling their stomachs before riding something like the roller coaster." The white wolf said frowning with concern.

Derek chuckled remembering similar occasion, their last trip to a carnival to be more precise. "Don't worry about them. They're always like that, and even though they always suffer the consequences is not like they'll stop anytime soon. So lets just let them enjoy their selves." He finished his hot dog.

Dante smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He sat down next to his friend. "I remember _us_ being like that."

Derek snorted. "If not worse."

Dante nodded.

"By the way, Dante?"

"Hmm?"

"Where are the others?" The black wolf asked looking around the rest of the stands.

He could see Scott and Stiles going from one place to another reading the menus out loud (seriously, what the hell is wrong with those two?), Allison, Isaac and Danny were talking while standing in line for the hot dog stand but the rest was nowhere in sight.

Dante made a thoughtful expression. "I recall Allison saying that Lydia and Jackson went to the hall of mirrors." Derek rolled his eyes at that, typical ego urges, "And, I'm not really sure but I think I saw Boyd and Erica heading for the house of horrors. Actually Stiles said that maybe they were just looking for a dark place to have a quicky." Both wolves snorted.

"Typical." The black wolf said sighing while his friend just snickered..

After a few moments of watching their pack members, mostly Stiles and Scott running around collecting as much food as they could from every stand, Dante cleared his throat to break the silence.

"Hey, Derek."

"Yeah?" he answered, his attention immediately on his friend.

Dante took a moment to speak, same moment in which Derek's alerts went up. Not because he thought or even felt something was approaching or anything, it was more the fact that Dante almost never called him by his complete name. They always called each other with silly names, so having the white wolf call him like that meant that he needed to say something serious.

"I need to ask you something important," he started scratching the back of his neck, "I mean since you're the alpha and all it's only logical and, of course, is the proper thing to do… I guess."

Now he felt more confused than worried. Why would Dante bring up the alpha thing now? At that point Derek's wolfy senses started to tingle (and no, there's no way in hell he'll ever admit saying that phrase to anyone, much less Stiles) when he saw his friend getting all flustered.

"Something wrong?"

"Well, it's not that there is something wrong, it's more like I need your opinion as a friend, and I also think your opinion as an alpha is needed of course… since it's _your_ pack." he remarked.

The black wolf rose a questioning brow.

Dante sighed, raising his eyes to look at the teens in front of them. While Allison, Danny and Isaac were already ready to sit down and start eating their hot dogs Scott and Stiles were fighting over who got to keep the last blue cotton candy. The white wolf couldn't help to let a small smile show in his features.

Derek also looked in the same direction, glimpsing the same scene, but he instead felt his chest tightening with fear.

"Do you think a certain human boy would agree to date a werewolf?" he asked going right to the point.

Derek felt sick.

He could register Scott suddenly choking on his own spit (which coincidentally allowed Stiles to take the last blue cotton candy), he could register the waving hands Isaac was making trying to not let his hot dog fall to the ground, he could see the weird looks Allison and Danny were making at their friends and he could even see from the corner of his eyes how Dante was looking at him with an expectant look. His senses could register everything but his brain was paralyzed.

This was the moment his heart feared the most.

He wanted to scream in pain, to shout out in anger, to growl and roar that Stiles was off limits even to him as his best friend; _however_, it was because Dante was his best friend, the last remnant of his past which still represented something good and happy, that he wouldn't be able to get in the way of his best friend's happiness _and, _if it was the case, the happiness of the boy he had fallen in love with.

He _knew_ he couldn't… he just wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it no matter how crushed his heart would end.

He made a sad smile.

But before Derek could say the words that would send his heart into oblivion the moment was interrupted by loud screams from the people around. All of the wolves were already on alert mode.

"What the hell was that?" Said Stiles rather concerned, although for someone who lived in Beacon Hills and was in the know about the kind of shit that went around in town he didn't need to take a shot in the dark.

Derek's growl was followed by Dante's. Both wolves had recognized the smell in an instant, the other wolves started to make low growls as well once they got a whiff of the scent.

"Derek, is him isn't it?" Said Isaac as his eyes started to glow golden yellow.

"There's no mistaking it." The black wolf turned to his friend. "I thought you got rid of that bastard last time."

"I did." he answered seriously. "I actually landed on top of him, and I know it was painful because I heard all of his bones snapping right under me." At this the rest of the pack frowned confused… all except Stiles.

"Dude, even if that's how things went you made it sound all dirty and fucked up." he said grimacing at the images in his mind.

Dante snickered and shook his head, Derek had to sigh in frustration for the kid's mental detour and the rest just shook their heads in disbelief.

Scott elbowed his friend. "Focus dude! Remember that that magical nutjob went after you the last time."

"Scott is right, Stiles." Allison said worried and exasperated.

"We better hurry and look for the others Derek." Suggested Isaac.

"And help those who are injured or in trouble." Added Danny.

Th alpha nodded. "Allison and Scott, you two go find Lydia and Jackson." The couple nodded and started to sprint away to the hall of mirrors. "Isaac and Danny, you two go to the house of horrors and find Erica and Boyd." Isaac grimaced with disgust before nodding and sprinting away pulling Danny along with him. "Dante, you take Stiles and hide somewhere. I'll take care of the rest." He simply stated while starting to walk away.

"Hey wait a second, Sourwolf." the alpha froze in place, he knew the boy would try to defy his orders, "First of all, rude man. I'm not some damsel in distress who can't fight back. Second, are even fucking serious?!" He asked in disbelief, "What do you mean you'll face it alone? Are you fucking insane?! Derek, that guy was crushed under one huge werewolf and he's somehow still alive."

"Well then, what do you suggest I do, Stiles? Since he was after you last time, I don't think letting the zombie mage near his target would be the most efficient way to play." he spat back, knowing well that boy would just never go with his plans to keep him safe.

"Oh, because you're so much better how to stand against him, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"Did you forget how his little goblin critters pinned you down last time?"

"You mean last time when you fucking corned yourself against a cliff?"

"Guys!" Dante shouted pulling the boys again from their usual bickering. "I hate to interrupt your little chat but we have a bit of an issue going on here, you know."

When both Derek and Stiles turned to see Dante they saw him in a fighting stance, all around them several of those goblins they had fought last time were now surrounding them. In a beat Derek got in fighting stance and stood besides Stiles. The wolves were trying to cover both sides of the teen, who in turned rolled his eyes.

"You guys just can't take a hint when I say 'I can take care of myself', right?"

"Is not that we don't believe you, Stiles." said Dante snarling at one of the goblins who got to close.

"It's more like we can't trust you to stay out of harm's way." Derek growled half-wolfed out.

"Hey!" The boy squeaked indignantly while Dante snorted. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"You're not exactly self-preservation material, Stiles." He paused launching a slash towards a goblin who was unlucky to get to close. "How many times has it been your ass the one almost getting killed?"

"Well excuse me for trying to help your sorry hide from getting shredded to stuffing material."

"I wouldn't be in such situations if you just learned to shut up and do as I say."

"And we wouldn't be getting into such messes if you listened to my ideas."

"Your plans are stupidly over complicated and most of the times they're just downright absurd."

"Well at least I try to think of a plan, not just going for the 'Let's smash through the front door and rip everyone's throats out before they shoot us to death' plan like you usually try to do." Derek growled. "You know I'm right Sourwolf."

Dante had to sigh and shake his head, because this was completely ridiculous. He need to make those two focus on the fight again.

"Knock it off you two!" he shouted effectively silencing the other two boys. "Let's try surviving this one before anything else, okay?" the other nodded. "First of all, we have our dear old wizard right on sight." He signaled to his right.

The wizard was walking into the plaza from between two of the stands, a weird kind of void grin plastered on his face. His eyes were white and they were shining with a mysterious gray glint, they seemed also devoid of any emotion.

"He's a zombie." Derek said.

"A zombie?"

"Necromancy." said Dante. "He smells like dead, but we can clearly see him not only standing but also using his powers somehow."

"So is he like some kind of magical zombie or something?"

"His amulet," Derek pointed at the wizard's chest, "It's glowing with the same light as his eyes, I'd say that's how he's doing all of this."

"Guys cover me." Stiles suddenly said.

Both wolves raised a questioning brow at him making the boy roll his eyes, these two were definitely close friends if not brothers.

"I think I know how to get rid of him but I need you two to cover me."

"Stiles, I swear to god, if you even think for a second that running up to him will-"

"Jesus Christ, Derek. Do I look suicidal? Look, I know when I actually have a chance at something and when i don't, okay?."

"Well you have poor judgement most of the times."

"Okay, listen you asshole-"

"Focus Stiles!" Dante interrupted.

"Sorry." he quickly apologized. "Just give me time to get to my jeep and no, Sourwolf, there's no way in hell I'd run away from a fight, get over it already."

Derek huffed.

"Just make it quick Stiles," said the black wolf, "The guy seems to be summoning more of those things by the minute and even werewolves can't win against large crowds."

"Got it." said Stiles before sprinting away at full speed.

Just as the kid started to sprint out of the area some of the critters also made a run after the kid but were swiftly halted by two massive werewolves, they both heard the boy snickering as he disappeared from view behind a fortune booth.

Both Derek and Dante started to slash their way through, trying to reach the zombie wizard.

They figured they could do something productive while waiting for the boy's return, not that they believed it would be effective since the goblin-like things kept them from getting anywhere near the guy.

"You think we'll last before he gets back?" Dante asked casually while ripping through a goblin's chest.

"He's always been quick on his feet when he needs to." Derek answered while ripping off a head.

"You really trust him don't you, Der?"

"He's pack." He said like that was all he needed to say.

"You should tell him." Dante said again after slicing a few goblins.

"He knows that." he retorted before ramming a few critters.

Dante only snickered.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"You always liked to beat around the bush, Der-bear." Dante shouted while dodging a few goblins

"Shut up and keep slashing." he shouted back.

After a few more minutes of mindless slicing, which Derek was not to complain about it but was getting kind of boring, both wolves found themselves cornered with tons of goblins blocking them in all directions. There was still no sign of Stiles. Derek could only hoped that the goblins, or the wizard for that matter, hadn't been able to pull an ambush on the kid… considering their luck _and_ Stiles' luck he might as well assume that that's what happened.

"Any ideas other than keep slicing them into deli meat?"

"Not really."

Dante scoffed. "I don't even know why I bother."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not exactly a master tactician, Derek. Now I see why Stiles always complains about this particular aspect of yours whenever he talks about you."

Stiles talked about him? Derek didn't know how to take that comment so he didn't say anything, he always opted for silence when confronted with conflicting emotions (big surprise there). Of course that didn't stop his heart from beating slightly faster, and judging by his friend's snort he knew he did a poor job at concealing it. Stupid werewolf hearing.

Suddenly, both wolves finally noticed that the wizard zombie was a few feet away from them, Derek figured that since he was a zombie he couldn't hear his heartbeat and therefore he hadn't heard him approaching.

The zombie guy looked at them with a eerie void-looking glare, Derek could tell that the guy looked at them like obstacles that needed to be removed for the sake of his goals, same goals that for some reason involved Stiles. After a low growl escaped from the black wolf's throat, the zombie wizard raised his palm, little blue electric shocks started to flash from his fingers.

Shit, this was getting better and better.

Was there anything better than getting charred by magical lightning?

Seeing that the goblins didn't let them any escape route both wolves resigned to take the hit and hoped that their healing abilities kicked in fast enough for them to spring back into action before the zombie wizard had time to finish them off. So just as the guy's sparkling hand was getting brighter and brighter, and the static sound was practically buzzing in their sensible wolfie ears, both Derek and Dante braced themselves for the impact.

As they both felt that a thunder had clapped right in front of them, with a resounding boom that wanted to make their eardrums implode to escape from the painful strength of the clashing noise, their bodies went still as the air around them went calm and silent and the blinding lights died out.

Everything went weirdly calm.

So calm, in fact, that even the zombie wizard looked lost.

What the hell just happened?

"Hey! Houdini!" the shout echoed through the food court.

Everyone, both the wolves, the goblins and the wizard turned their heads to look at Stiles standing proudly on the edge of one of the food stands (the cotton candy stand to be more precise) the boy had his arms crossed over his chest, he was wearing one of those 'I-got-you-right-where-I wanted' shit eating grins Derek knew very well. Those were usually infuriating but right now the alpha felt kind of proud because that could only mean the boy really had the enemy cornered… that or he was about to do something completely stupid.

Shit. Worrying thoughts returning again.

"What's up pikachu? Lost your spark?" he said still grinning.

While Dante couldn't help the snicker Derek withheld the urgent need to facepalm himself, this was not the moment for stupid puns.

"If I remember correctly you were after me last time, right? Well," he said gesturing himself, "Here's lil' Stiles for the taking." he made a defiant glare. "I dare you, zombie merlin."

The wizard seemed to consider the boy's offer and pointed a finger towards the teen, indicating his goblins to capture him. The boy, on the other hand, didn't even budge an inch from his spot, grin still in place

Derek seriously needed a talk to redefine Stiles' idea about doing stupid things with the boy.

"What the hell are you doing, Stiles?!" Seriously, did this kid just had a death wish or something? "Run away!" but the boy still wouldn't move from his place.

Derek's heart started to beat against his ribcage so strongly that he could almost felt it trying to burst out of his chest, mostly because when he tried to move towards the boy the goblins moved in accordance and started to hold him down. Dante was not having better luck than him, since all of the critters started to pin him down as well regardless of how much slashing the white wolf did.

Everything was moving in slow motion for the alpha: the wizard's, the goblins moving towards Stiles, Dante being pinned down to the ground, even Derek's own body seemed to moved at an alarming slow pace for his perception. Like the seconds were trying to stretch themselves as much as possible.

Stiles was in danger and there was nothing he could do to help him, he was going to lose another loved one again. And just when his heart started to clench from the horrible thought his body felt free again. Another sound came from behind him, Dante was throwing off of him all the goblins that had him pinned to the ground with a resounding growl. The alpha then instinctively shook off the goblins who were holding him, to his surprise, with very little effort now.

Derek took a better look around, all the goblins were starting to not only _actually_ move slower but they also seemed to be getting weaker by the second, their faces all contorted and twisted with a look of weariness.

What the fuck?

A thudding sound made the black wolf turn his eyes towards the boy again, he was surprised to find the zombie wizard kneeling in front of a pretty smug looking Stiles. The zombie guy seemed like he was having a hard time breathing, he was stretching out his hand trying to reach the teen, until finally his head fell to the ground with a low thud. Looks he had finally gave his last breath… hopefully

"Not feeling so strong and might now, right?" he said all superior while walking away from the guy towards the wolves. "Are you guys okay? Any wounds?".

"It's okay, we'll heal." Derek answered shoving a goblin off his back. By this point the alpha realized that all of the critters looked they had ragdollize for some reason. "What happened to them?"

"Well I-" the boy stopped his words when a loud growl sounded a few steps away from him and the alpha, a few corpses were being thrown into the air as Dante made his way out of the mountain of critters.

"Fucking hell, these guys can _really_ get heavy in groups." he said panting. "You guys okay?" both Stiles and Derek nodded. "What just happened?"

"Nullifyer." Stiles answered shrugging.

Both wolves rose a questioning brow (thought Dante's brow couldn't manage to do out-brow Derek's).

"I nullified the magic that was keeping Merlin here alive." he said signaling behind him. "You see, basically summoners have two options when performing their magic: you either summon a powerful creature to assist you or you can call a whole horde to rampage. Horde summoning is actually cheaper and easier than the other kind, but the trick is that as long as the summoning source is active then the spamming horde never ends, since they actually become linked to it, so they're not exactly alive but they're not dead either. In other words is like calling dolls to do your dirty work for you. As long as the one who made the call is alive then the dolls are alive."

"Wait a minute, if that's the case then how come he was able to summon even though he was dead already?" the white wolf asked.

"I think a more important question is: how the fuck did he revive himself?" Derek retorted.

"Well, you see, even though he actually _was_ dead, or is, he was revived to a certain extend by the magic of the necromancy done on, him and is fair to assume that the same magic that was powering him to be alive as a zombie served as the fuel to keep the goblins alive as well. That would explain why they suddenly went limp as soon as the magic giving life to magical zombie here was removed."

While Dante nodded at the explanation, Derek kept looking at Stiles expectantly.

The teen sighed.

"As to _why_ he came back, well I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that maybe his magic responded to his dying spirit."

"Dying spirit?"

"Deaton told me once that usually, strong wizards are deeply linked to their magic in the sense that it acquires a certain degree of sentience and acts accordingly to its master's will."

"So you're saying that when this guy got crushed under me his magic immediately did necromancy on him and turned him into a zombie?!" Dante asked surprised.

"Well, either that or maybe his spirit possessed his magical amulet to do the trick." he said shrugging.

Dante snorted. "Well it's a good thing you were prepared with that nullifying thing."

Stiles grinned. "What can I say except that planning is my specialty."

"It is." said Derek.

Stiles looked at him a little confused and surprised at the same time, it wasn't like Derek could blame him taking into account how little appraise he gave to the boy.

"And _that_ is why you're pack." he added.

"You think so?" the boy asked shyly.

"I don't think so, I _know_ so." he corrected with a small tug of his lips.

The moment felt warm, the alpha was getting this feeling in his gut that told that even if Stiles never reciprocated his feelings he had a right to know just how much he mattered to him not only as a pack member. He also needed to get this drowning feeling out of his chest.

"Stiles I- Watch out!"

Derek, who was about to finish not only this clenching feeling in his gut but also that stupid plan to bring them both him and Stiles together, felt a terrible pang in his heart as he saw out of the corner of his eye how the now supposed dead wizard extended his palm towards the teen and a flash of light shot out of it. As a flash a light sparked and flew towards the boy the alpha moved instinctively, pushed Stiles out of the way towards Dante and stood in front waiting for the impact.

A loud thunder-like clap drowned the sounds around Derek, he could barely make a desperate voice calling out to him and an angry growl as he felt the ground hitting his back.

As his vision blurred he felt a pair of warm soft hands holding his face.

Then everything went black.

* * *

When Derek woke up he felt like shit.

His head throbbed like something wanted out of his skull, his whole body felt numb like he hadn't moved in days, his ears buzzed like a radio had exploded right next to them, and his mouth felt like sandpaper and gravel rubbing on each other.

Although his vision was a bit blurry at the moment he knew he was back in his room, that much he could tell by the smells around him, most likely the entire pack had probably paced around his room while Deaton was healing him, and by the comfy feeling he always got from his memory foam mattress ('Trust me Sourwolf, you'll be feeling in heaven with one of these.'). When he tried to sit up in his mattress he felt a horrible pang throbbing in his chest, making him fall right back into the mattress.

The memories of those last moments flashed before his eyes.

The fair.

The talk with Dante.

The goblins and the zombie wizard.

The fight.

The talk about the nullifier.

The need to confess to Stiles.

And finally the magic blast hitting him.

If his chest was hurting this much then it meant that that magic shot was far more powerful and dangerous than what it had looked like. Actually, now that he thought about it, his entire body still tingled with the unmistakable feeling of the healing factor, which could only mean that if the magic blast had struck Stiles the boy would've most likely not survived it.

He cringed at the thought.

Good thing he got Stiles out of the way in time.

Just as he sighed and lift a hand to try to massage his temple the door to his room was open, he was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn't noticed the steps approaching him. He couldn't stop his heart from beating loudly in his ears when his nose identified Stiles' sweet scent and his eyes saw the slim shadowed figure of the boy crossing the door. He quickly closed his eyes and went still, slowing down his breathing as well as the wild beating of his heart to appear sleep.

"Sourwolf?" he heard the boy whisper.

"You awake, Sourwolf?" he heard him whispering again before snickering. "Well duh, Stiles. Of course he is not awake, if he _was_ the pack would've already barged in here." he said to himself chuckling.

Derek was glad he was a master of poker faces, like Stiles had said once, because that way he could inwardly smile at the things the kid was blabbing.

"Don't worry Sourwolf, I won't disturb you so much, I'm here just to check if any bandages need to be changed." He said again with a low voice placing what Derek supposed was a bowl of water.

As the teen settled beside him and started to undo the bandages his heart started to beat wildly one more time, the sole thought of Stiles' hands caressing his skin made his stomach twist with anticipation.

"Seems like everything is healing nice and well, not as quickly as usual but still steady." he said before putting the bandages back in place.

The alpha had to restrain his face from frowning when he heard the boy sighing.

"You really _are_ a huge jerk, you know that?" Stiles said as he stood up. "Only _you_ would be stupid enough to throw yourself in front of the spell blast without even thinking, Sourwolf." he heard the boy snort. "And you call _me_ the reckless one."

Derek started to feel really confused at the boys words.

"You're lucky your wolfy powers saved you from that, otherwise you would've immediately turned to dust," he heard the boy pacing around his bed. "Seriously, Derek, if you weren't a werewolf you would've died right on the spot."

Derek felt the bed sinking again to his right side, Stiles' warmness radiating close to him.

"You truly _are_ a stupid Sourwolf, you know?" judging by the soft rustle the alpha supposed Stiles was fiddling with the sheets when suddenly Stiles' weight was gone from the bed one more time, "For god's sake! I still had that nullifier with me at the moment, Sourwolf! Even if the spell had hit me it wouldn't had done jack shit to me because it would've been negated the very instant it had made impact."

_Fuck, the nullifier_. Derek thought. How the hell did he forget about that? So the whole heroic move had been completely pointless, to the point where it was almost stupid if you thought about it. Christ, even when trying to be all noble and shit he couldn't stop making a fool of himself. But before the alpha could continue his internal rambling a wavering sigh from the boy snapped him back to reality.

"Jesus Christ, Derek. Don't this again, okay?" the teen's voice started to quiver with each word. "I know you're are alpha and all but… for fuck's sake, Derek! We're your pack, you're suppose to trust in us, you also have to trust the fact that you _are_ a good alpha, a really good one who taught us how to take care of ourselves and protect each other when needed. I know you worry about us, I know you feel responsible for us, but you also have to understand that we want to help and protect you as well because you're _our_ alpha."

Derek heart clenched when he heard the boy trying to contain his sobbing. His brain still not fully processing all of Stiles' words.

"I know you worry about me the most," _Shit, how did he know?_ "but only because I'm the human." Derek had to restrain himself from frowning at that comment. "I know I'm human and that I can only do so much, even with magic artifacts and few spells at my disposal but… Damn it, Derek! Can't you see that I want to help as well? I really want to be part of this pack, and not only as a researcher but as fighter as well. Okay, maybe not that much of a fighter as you wolves, but definitely being more proactive than just clicking the 'search' button in google every time something new shows up."

Stiles sat in the bed again, letting out a long sigh. He was no longer in the verge of sobbing but his heart was still beating faster than usual.

"I just want to feel useful, you know? Whenever you try to hold me back from a fight using the human card on me I feel like you're ruing you ever let me into the pack, and even though I know is just your stupid idea of always having to protect everyone from everything I just can't help feeling that way. Then you just suddenly say to me that I'm pack, make feel like I finally earned my place and all of a sudden you get blasted right in front of my eyes." The sobbing returned and Derek felt like a total ass.

How come he never noticed this? _Because you're a fucking dumbass, that's why_. He practically heard a voice in his head that sounded like Laura, which was right by the way. Yes, he is the alpha; yes, he is the leader; yes, he feel responsible for them and _hell yes_ he's going to try his damn best to always look after them, especially Stiles (even if he's emotionally stunned), but that didn't excuse from treating the boy as if he-

"I love you."

And there went every trace of rationality inside the alpha's brain.

_What?_

_WHAT?!_

"I'm sorry, Derek, but I just couldn't stop myself from falling in love with you."

Derek's brain was still in shock, so much in fact that he had opened his eyes at the confession but, lucky him, Stiles was sitting with his back to him so the boy didn't notice that the alpha was not really sleeping.

"And I know that you would probably say 'It's never gonna work' or 'I'm not interested' or whatever" He said in a gruff voice trying to imitate Derek's, "and I'm sorry I couldn't stop this but it happened, it happened and now I don't know what to do." he tried to swallow down the emerging sobbing.

Derek still couldn't believe what he was hearing, not just because Stiles had confessed his feelings but also because the boy was practically apologizing for the feelings he had, as if feeling that way was the worst insult Derek could receive.

"From the moment I realized my own feelings I knew it was completely hopeless," he said in a low voice, "Why would you ever feel attracted to someone as weird and spastic as me? Not to mention that I always annoy the shit out of you, that you have to constantly take care of me whenever shit hits the fan and that you would probably drink a glass full of wolfsbane rather than be near me for more than five seconds but I-"

The teen's word vomit was cut when he turned to look at the wolf and suddenly found his mouth covered with the alpha's lips and full of Derek's tongue.

As soon as Derek started to register the boy's self pity party he just couldn't, both himself and his wolf shouted at the same time that he couldn't allow Stiles to belittle himself… at least not in front the alpha at least. He had to stop those hurtful words, both for Stiles and him, from coming out of the boy's mouth. So what was the best way to stop a verbal vomit, specially one of Stiles' verbal vomits, from flowing? To busy the boy's mouth with something else, that something else being a kiss.

And it fucking tasted like heaven.

The best part of it was when the teen finally came out of his stupor and started to answer, not only by kissing back but also by proactively participating in it.

_Very_ proactively if anyone asked Derek.

After a few moments of intense and heated kissing later both of their bodies remembered them that they needed air in order to breath properly, so when they broke the kiss to fill their lungs with oxygen one more time Derek basked with the sight of Stiles. The teen looked flustered, wild freckles under those blushed cheeks, lips red and swollen with a little spit around them and eyes fully dilated and shining brightly with the light coming from Derek's bedside lamp. There couldn't have been a more beautiful sight for the alpha.

"I'm sorry." was the first thing the alpha blurted out making the boy frown. "I'm sorry I make you feel like you get in the way or that you're hindrance. You're anything but useless or helpless, but I just can't stop this instinct of protectiveness, especially when anything dangerous heads _your_ way."

When Stiles remained silent, only trying to normalize his breathing, Derek chuckled figuring it was his turn to do all the talking.

Fucking finally.

"I know you believe that I have this huge and massive guilt complex as well as my 'martyr complex' as you sometimes put it, which okay I'll admit I _might_ have those" the boy snorted, "but I need you understand that is not because I believe you are some kind of defenseless little boy or that I think you're completely useless that I do these things, it's not because of that. It's because I just _can't_ stand the idea of watching you being in danger's way and me not doing nothing about it."

_Putting yourself_ was actually the phrase he wanted to say, but why ruin the moment, right?

"So all I can say is that I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for making you feel this way but I just can't stop it and, honestly, I won't ever stop trying to protect you or saving you because..." _Come one, you stupid Sourwolf! Don't you fucking dare to chicken out now!_ His inner self screamed.

"Because...?" the boy conceded with an expectant face and hopeful looking eyes.

Derek smiled. "Because I love you."

And then the alpha sealed their lips.

* * *

After a few heated, and if anyone asked Derek, quite dirty sounding makeout sessions, both him and Stiles were lying in the alpha's bed, content to be in each others arms, basking in the others warmness and both hearts beating so rhythmically at the same time that Derek could swear that they were beating as one.

Fuck, he was turning into a complete sap.

"How long?" the teen asked suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"How long were you awake during my speech?" the boy asked.

Stiles was currently pressed against the alpha's chest as he gently caressed the older boy's abs through the fabric of the bandages with the tips of his fingers. It was the most amazing feeling in the universe for Derek.

"Just before you came into my room." he said nuzzling the boy's hair.

"In other words, you pretended to be asleep the whole time, right you sneaky asshole?" he said teasingly.

Derek chuckled. "At first I thought you only wanted to check on me so I went limp, but then you said you were going to check my bandages and I thought I could hold on until you went away, but then you started talking about all those things and just I couldn't help it."

"Were you expecting anything in particular?"

"At first I figured you were just going to berate me for treating you like a defenseless human, as always, but then you started your self pity party and I started feeling like a downright ass-"

"You are." the boy interrupted.

Derek rose a brow.

"A very _ass_tonishingly sexy one, but still an ass." he added snickering.

"Terrible pun." the alpha said dryly.

"But still worth it." Stiles grinned making the alpha sigh.

"_Anyway_, as I was saying, as soon as I heard you starting your self pity party I decided to make you stop but then you caught me off guard by confessing right after that. I was shocked."

"Did you made any kind of reaction to that?"

"Of course I did. I was gaping like a fish but since you had your back to me you didn't see it." Derek had to chuckle when he heard tenn whispering a curse into his black shirt. "Then you started to belittle yourself and I knew there was only one thing I could do to stop the hurtful rambling."

"You kissed me." the boy stated.

Derek nodded.

"Well, that was good thinking, I'll give you that. Actually _really_ good thinking if I may say so." he said all smug making snort in derision.

"I'm glad you think that." he said leaning in to nuzzle the boy's hair one more time.

Stiles couldn't help to chuckle at Derek's nuzzling, the alpha could feel the boy's body shuddering at his actions as he also smelled the happiness practically pouring out of the kid. His heart soared at the realization that this was happening, him and the boy he had dreamed about being together with were now a thing.

He just wanted to keep kissing Stiles, and by god did he vow never to stop.

But just as he gently pushed the boy's face from his chest to a proper angle to lean in and kiss him the moment was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Are you two presentable?" came Dante's voice from behind the door.

Derek couldn't help the smile in his face when the boy in his arms muttered 'cockblocked' and shrugged.

The alpha shook his head amused. "Just come in." Dante opened the door but stood by the door frame looking all smug. "I'll have you know i was in the middle of something."

"I know," the white wolf said smiling, "I just came to check on you two before going to sleep."

"What about the others?" asked Stiles turning to face Dante without moving out of his alpha's arms. "What were you guys doing while I was here?"

"Well, a few minutes after you came into Derek's room Lydia took control of the TV, again, and played The Notebook, again. Half way through Danny excused himself saying he had something to do very early in the morning, so I gave him a ride." At that comment Derek rose a questioning brow while Stiles grinned, "Isaac, Scott and Jackson crashed on your couch because they cried themselves to sleep with the movie," both boys in bed made surprised looks, "And Allison and Lydia went to sleep to Isaac's room like ten minutes ago. I was just finishing on tidying the place a little bit before hitting the pillow."

"Wait, what happened to Boyd and Erica?" Derek asked.

"They disappeared five minutes into the movie," the wolf shrugged, "God only knows where and what are they doing now."

"Probably each other." Stiles said snickering causing the two wolves to snort in derision.

"Anyway, I just wanted to see if you were okay before going to sleep, and judging by the look of it you two are _more_ than okay." he said wiggling his eyebrows.

Derek snorted and shook his head, his body still relishing the incredible feeling of Stiles in his arms as the boy also trembled with contained laughter.

"We'll be fine, you go to sleep." Derek said.

"Right away 'Oh, great alpha'," he said grabbing the doorknob, "Just make sure you two get some sleep too, Der-der." and with that he shut the door behind him.

Derek let a low laughter escape his lip as he shook his head, his old friend was definitely incorrigible.

"Sorry about that." he said squeezing the boy in his arms.

"It's okay," he said turning to face the wolf once again, "Besides, Dante was right about _you_ getting some sleep."

"Why?"

"Well, for starters, you were nearly blast to death by a psycho-summoning-magic zombie."

"I'm a werewolf, I'm healed."

"_Healing_." the boy corrected.

"It's no big deal, Stiles. I'm okay." the wolf said reassuringly.

The teen looked at him skeptically and then proceeded to dig a finger into the alpha's chest, making the older boy flinch, "You see? You're still healing. You _need_ to rest, Sourwolf."

Derek sighed and smiled, whenever the boy made his mind there was no turning back.

"Okay, fine, you win." he said smiling as he could practically feel the boy in arms swelling with pride, probably for getting him to follow his order. "Put I hope you're aware that there's no way in hell I'm letting you get out this bed either, right?"

Stiles chuckled. "Did I made any movement that made you think I wanted to do that?"

When Derek decided to make him shut up with a kiss he figured he could still find other ways to challenge Stiles for who could order who with better results.

* * *

A week after the incident at the fair found both Derek and Dante standing next to each other as they gazed out the window of the airport's lounge area, they always felt mesmerized watching aircrafts either landing or taking of into the air.

"So you're going to Chicago, huh?" Asked Derek as he watched yet another plane take flight.

"Yeah," Dante answered sounding absent minded.

"I thought you said your family lived in Seattle."

"They do. Even after my parents got divorced, mother was still in good terms with my grandparents, my lil bro would always tell me how often they would keep in contact and go visit there a couple a times per month."

"You know, I just realized I never actually asked you about Darius. Sorry about that."

"Don't worry, man." He made a dismissive gesture. "He's doing great. He told me a few weeks ago that he was seeing this girl, really cute and sweet and that 'she might be the one' but you how it is with kids and hormones today." he said snickering. "Although, I'm pretty sure you mostly get the hormone part don't you Der-der?"

Derek snorted in derision, shoving his friend by the shoulder. "Shut up, you idiot."

Dante laughed while Derek just keep shoving him playfully. For some reason this interactions with his old friend felt really relieved after the last weeks, the alpha figured his chest no longer felt pressured by the whole thing about winning Stiles. Probably he had really subconsciously labeled his best friend as his rival, but now that he and the teen were together he felt like he could lower his defense around the white wolf again. He really missed this feeling.

"But seriously Der, I'm glad for you and Stiles." the white wolf said once he had calm down his laughing fit, "You two just fit together in unique way."

Derek rose a skeptical brow. "Why does it sound like you're saying 'Looks like you finally meet your match'?"

Dante laughed again. "You _do_ know me very well, don't you Der? But seriously though, I really am glad for you two, hopefully your scowls will have more meaning to them than just 'Why are you breathing?' or 'Shut up and do as I say!'"

"Urgh, you really _did_ spend a lot of time with Stiles." the alpha groaned.

"Kind of, yeah." he said grinning.

_Flight number 2504 with destination to Chicago will commence aboardment in 5 minutes in gate # 27._

"Well Der-der, that's my call." he said grabbing his duffel bag from the floor. "Better go get in line now before people start pile up."

"Yeah, we don't want your numbered seat to be taken by someone else, do we?"

"You really are an ass, you know." he said punching his friend. "Anyway, thanks for everything, and I'm sorry if I stayed for too long."

"Don't worry about it, it was great getting to see you again. You know, spending time together and doing stuff, just like before."

"Yeah," Dante nodded, "Anyway, better get going now. Say thanks to the pack for me for the farewell party, would you?"

"I will."

"Take care wolfy, see you next time."

Derek snorted. "See you around too wolfy." And with that the alpha embraced his friend one more time.

Once they broke apart and started to walk in opposite direction, before Derek was out of of the lounge room he stopped when his wolf ears caught the sound of Dante's voice calling him.

"By the way, Derek." he called his friend from afar. "Two things. One, tell Stiles to _please_ stop talking about you so much next time he drags me around town. Two, I pretty much knew already, but Lydia was also right, It was _fucking time_ you two got together." he said in an exasperated tone and then he snickered. "Good luck with him Der-der."

"Wait! What? He talked about me? Why Lydia? What do you mean with 'fucking finally'? Dante?!" he asked genuinely confused as he turned around to look for his friend.

Dante was no longer within sight but not doubting that his friend had heard him the alpha supposed he wasn't going to get an answer after a few seconds of silence.

He would have to ask him next time… or punch the answer out of him.

It would all depend on the mood he would have next time he saw his friend.

...Yeah, he was probably going to punch it out of him.

* * *

By the time Derek got back to his manor from the airport he expected to find the entire pack already there loitering in his living room, all tightly fitting into couch while eating all of his food, he was quite surprised when he only found Lydia was there reading some book about politics.

"They went to get enough junk food to make a whale hurl." she simply stated as he closed the door behind him.

"As long as they don't do the hurling in my couch." he replied.

She just shrugged.

"There's something I want to ask you."

Lydia made no movement to look at him but he supposed she was just waiting for him to keep speaking.

"Just before Dante started to aboard his flight he said something that caught my attention," he said, noticing how the girl was trying to hold back his lips from tugging upwards, "he mentioned something about you the fact that Stiles and I got together."

"What did he say?" she asked with too much innocence in her tone, so much that Derek couldn't help to narrow his eyes at her.

"He said how you had said that it was fucking time for us to finally be together." he said in a more stern tone.

"Well is true," she said finally looking the alpha's way, "It was about time you two sorted out your shit, pull your heads out of your asses and _finally_ get some from each other." she smiled sweetly.

"Is your comment _implying_ what I think it's?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"If by that you mean that I personally told Dante about the whole plan and asked him to participate in it, mostly because the majority of your betas have no ability whatsoever on the art of flirting and they would probably be as single as you were if not for their hot supernatural enhanced bodies, and then he agreed because he said if was about time for you two to, and I quote, 'fucking finally' get together meaning that all this time he was just playing along, then yes, Derek, I _am_ implying what you think." she remarked with a sweet smile.

Derek had to blink a few times to soak all that information in one go.

What the actual fuck.

"So all this time you were all in cahoots with my best friend to help me hook up with Sties?" he asked still not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"No, not all of the pack. Just me to be more precise." she corrected the alpha.

"Why?"

"Scott wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut for long and Erica would've probably tried worse things than that orgy she suggested. So, you're welcome."

Derek sighed trying to keep the headache at hold.

"Well, based on the results, you can exactly complain, can you?" the alpha had to begrudgingly shake his head, "Well,as I said before, you got him back and, as Dante said as well, it was about time."

"Now that I think about it, what did you mean when you said that? We were never together to begin with."

The girl shook her head, as if she couldn't believe how stupid was this werewolf.

Right at that moment the doorbell started to ring.

"That must be the pizza. Well, since I can't handle anymore stupid why don't you go pay for it while I prepare the drinks." and with that she strutted away to the kitchen.

Realizing that the girl would never answer his questions, and most able realizing himself that he was better off not asking anymore, Derek decided to drop the whole matter and go pay for the pizza hoping that enough food was ordered. Night packs tended to turn quite antagonistic whenever there was a lack of pizza, especially for the wolves.

Later that night, as the pack comfortably settled in the living room to watch a movie (not The Notebook this time in case you were wondering), Derek decided that it didn't really matter if his friend was in the plan or if the pack had horrible ideas or even if the evil scheming redheaded girl he called pack member had double crossed them all. It really didn't matter because, as the movie went on and Stiles continually snuggled into the alpha's side making him feel the boy's grin against his chest, in the end all that really mattered was that Stiles and him were together.

He had his pack around him, his best friend was back and he had _his_ boy.

What more could he have asked for?

* * *

As he walked out of the building he took a deep breath and stretched his muscles as far he could, relishing in the feeling his body got out of it. Then he took a look at his surroundings and practically sprinted for the first available cab he saw, quickly climbing into back seat.

As the cab rolled along the way he took a moment to appreciate the city in front of him, the realization that he would soon see his family after a long time finally registering. His chest swelled with warmness and his gut twisted with anticipation, but all thoughts were halted when his pocket started throbbing.

"Hey mom!" he answered happy.

"Yeah, I'm already on my way. I just grabbed a cab."

"Don't worry, of course I remembered the address." he snorted in derision.

"Sure, I'll stop by on the way."

"Okay, see all you soon. Love you, bye." he ended the call.

Just as he was about to put the phone back in his pocket, the device once again throbbed. He quickly inspected seeing he had received a text, he smiled and frowned in confusion when he saw the name Lydia on screen.

'_Operation Frivals' Status: success. Thank you for everything. Seriously. _

_P.S. Derek still can't figure it out and I think he decided to just drop it._

He couldn't help the chuckle as he shook his head, then he quickly answered back.

_Glad I could help with those two, and if you guys ever need anything don't hesitate to call me. _

_P.S. No surprise there, and i'm glad he did, Der-der always gets headaches when he strains his brain too much. lol_

Putting the phone back in his pocket he let his gaze wander out the window, memories of his childhood together with a certain sourwolf coming back to him. He smiled with nostalgia all over his face as he remembered a certain event with a little spastic four year old boy in a park back in Beacon Hills when they were both ten years old.

"Glad you finally got your mate, Der-bear." he snickered. "It _really_ was about fucking time."

Dante wondered when would be the next time he would get to visit Beacon Hills.

* * *

You know Lady Inspiration can be a real bitch sometimes, this had been flying inside my head for quite some time but whenever i got the ideas to keep going the inspiration only lasted so little... I hate it when that happens.

Anyway, there you have it, an ass-long one-shot (my first one-shot by the way) for your reading time.

Hope you liked it and don't forget to leave your comments or words of hatred, your choice. AND I also hope little Miss Inspiration is not so much of a bitch and next time allows me to come up with something a little more faster for you guys. But Hey! at the very least I'm still alive :D

Read ya all next time.


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